house details
carbon footprint score
personalized plans
graphical breakdowns
trend insights

Inspiration

Everyone wants to be more sustainable -- until it becomes a spreadsheet.

When people try to calculate their carbon footprint, they’re met with vague results or endless requests for obscure utility data. What starts as genuine curiosity quickly turns into frustration, and most give up before they even understand their impact -- let alone how to reduce it.

We built EcoValuate to break that cycle. By generating a home’s carbon footprint from simple inputs and transforming it into a personalized renovation roadmap based on budget and timeline, we turn sustainability from an overwhelming concept into clear, achievable action.

What It Does

Once the user enters their home address, EcoValuate calculates the home’s carbon footprint using key property characteristics such as square footage, year built, heating type, and location. By combining deterministic carbon footprint estimation with real-world energy data, the platform generates an accurate estimate of the home’s annual emissions.

But EcoValuate goes beyond measurement. After calculating the carbon score, users input their budget, timeline, and renovation preferences. The system then generates a personalized renovation roadmap that prioritizes home upgrades based on carbon reduction impact, cost, and payback period.

The renovation roadmap includes explanations for each renovation decision, projected CO2 saved, the equivalent amount of trees planted, and an implementation timeline -- transforming abstract climate data into clear, actionable decisions.

EcoValuate turns climate awareness into a practical, financially-informed plan that homeowners and buyers can act on to make the world a better place.

How We Built It

We built EcoValuate as a full-stack web application, beginning with Figma to design the user flow and ensure an intuitive experience from address input to renovation roadmap. On the frontend, we implemented a dynamic, state-driven interface using React, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to handle user inputs, carbon score visualization, and roadmap generation.

On the backend, we developed a Python-based API that performs deterministic carbon footprint estimation using property characteristics and real-world energy data from NREL. We then integrated Google Gemini to generate structured, personalized renovation roadmaps based on user budget, timeline, and preferences. The backend connects the carbon estimation tool with the AI planning layer, returning clear, data-driven recommendations to the frontend.

Together, this architecture allowed us to combine deterministic estimation with AI-powered personalization in a seamless end-to-end application.

Challenges We Faced

One of our biggest challenges was building a reliable carbon estimation model despite incomplete property data. Many listings lack detailed information about insulation, appliance efficiency, or occupancy, so we had to design inference rules while clearly communicating assumptions. Another key challenge was balancing deterministic carbon estimation with AI-driven personalization -- we needed to ensure that Gemini generated structured renovation plans without hallucinating costs or unrealistic upgrades. Finally, integrating external APIs and maintaining data flow between our Flask backend and React frontend required careful coordination under tight time constraints.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

We’re proud that in just 36 hours, we built a fully functional end-to-end web application integrating a Flask backend with a dynamic frontend. We successfully identified and integrated the necessary APIs to obtain data, and implemented a deterministic carbon footprint estimation engine paired with an AI-generated renovation planner.

Beyond the technical build, our team stepped outside our comfort zones -- taking on new roles across frontend, backend, and integration -- to deliver a cohesive product under tight time constraints.

What We Learned

Throughout this project, we gained valuable technical experience building and integrating across the full stack. On the frontend, we translated product ideas into intuitive UI designs using Figma and implemented dynamic interfaces with React. On the backend, we built a Flask API to connect deterministic carbon footprint estimation with external data sources like NREL and integrated Gemini to generate structured, personalized renovation roadmaps. Beyond individual tools, we learned how to balance deterministic modeling with AI-driven decision support in a real-world application.

What’s Next For EcoValuate

Although Irvine Hacks is ending, EcoValuate is just getting started! Our next steps include enabling users to dynamically regenerate their renovation roadmap by excluding upgrades they can’t pursue, adding interactive visualizations that show the projected carbon mitigation over time, and integrating images of houses as input. Our team is committed to continuing the development of our project and turning EcoValuate into a full-fledged home advisor that people rely on for making their homes sustainable!