Climate Data Prototype

Emission Factors Zine

A playable field guide that turns EPA supply-chain greenhouse gas emission factors into sector stickers, cutscenes, and a short NAICS comparison run.

By Eric Rhea GameLab prototype Status: Playable static app

The app uses public EPA emission factors. Values are factors per 2022 U.S. dollar of purchaser price, not total economy-wide emissions.

Emission Factors Zine main explorer with sector collection, EPA row summary, and punk field-guide art

High-Level Overview

Emission Factors Zine is a static GameLab prototype about comparing supply-chain carbon intensity without pretending the dataset is a climate model. It loads EPA CO2e factors by NAICS, ranks sectors by emissions per dollar, and asks the visitor to collect contrasting sector clues before building a short field guide.

The zine frame is intentional. The dataset is technical, but the interaction is a simple evidence walk: start with a folder of sector clues, collect high and low intensity examples, then turn the comparison into something explainable.

What the Prototype Lets You Do

  • Open a static browser app backed by epa_supply_chain_ghg_emission_factors_co2e.csv.
  • Compare NAICS sectors by kg CO2e per 2022 U.S. dollar of purchaser price.
  • Collect high and low sector stickers to reveal contrast in supply-chain factors.
  • Move through intro, tutorial, cutscene, settings, credits, and Field Guide states without a backend.
  • Inspect the local EPA source note before treating any factor as evidence.

Source Backbone

The local source note captures the exact compact CO2e CSV used by the prototype and the caveat that these are factors, not total emissions.

Local file epa_supply_chain_ghg_emission_factors_co2e.csv, retrieved 2026-07-01, 123,481 bytes, with 1,016 data rows and 8 columns.
Publisher U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Integrity SHA-256: 6025a14c4fe16675735efba1683030e4d36011e3973f3c4261f8231aa69c002f.

Build Detail

The playable app ships as static HTML, CSS, JavaScript modules, local Three.js, generated zine art, courier sprites, cutscene panels, and the EPA CSV in data/. The app parses the source rows client-side, ranks factor values with margins, groups sectors by NAICS prefix, and leaves the source file unmodified.

Related builds

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