Method and apparatus for reducing environmental load generated from living behaviors in everyday life of a user

1. An apparatus for reducing environmental load generated from a plurality of different kinds of living behaviors in everyday life of a user, comprising:

a first memory to store unimproved behavior amounts of the living behaviors;

a second memory to store basic units of the living behaviors, one of the basic units being an environmental load generated per unit behavior amount of corresponding one of the living behaviors;

a first calculation unit configured to calculate, based on the unimproved behavior amounts, behavior amount variations of the living behaviors when each of the living behaviors increases by one unit behavior amount;

a second calculation unit configured to calculate an environmental load variation of a living behavior of the living behaviors when the living behavior increases by one unit behavior amount, by calculating a sum of values each obtained by multiplying one of the behavior amount variations by corresponding one of the basic units, to obtain a plurality of environmental load variations of the living behaviors;

an assigning unit configured to assign messages to the living behaviors based on the environment load variations of the living behaviors, the messages including a first message group and a second message group, (a) each message, included in the first message group, being assigned to corresponding one of the living behaviors which increases the environmental load, and being for reducing the behavior amount of the one of the living behaviors, and (b) each message, included in the second message group, being assigned to corresponding another of the living behaviors which decreases the environmental load, and being for increasing the behavior amount of the another of the living behaviors;

a third memory to store improved behavior amounts of the living behaviors, one of the improved behavior amounts of corresponding one of the living behaviors being measured when one of the messages which is assigned to the one of the living behaviors is presented to the user;

a third calculation unit configured to calculate an environmental load reduction of a living behavior of the living behavior by (a) calculating a variation between one of the unimproved behavior amounts of the living behavior and one of the improved behavior amounts of the living behavior, and (b) multiplying the variation by the environmental load variation of the living behavior, to obtain a plurality of environmental load reductions of the living behaviors; and

a selecting unit configured to select one of the messages which is assigned to one of the living behaviors has the largest environmental load reduction.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the unimproved behavior amounts are unimproved daily behavior amounts of the living behaviors, and

the improved behavior amounts are improved daily behavior amounts of the living behaviors.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the third calculation unit calculates the variation between an average of the unimproved daily behavior amounts of the living behavior and an average of the improved daily behavior amounts of the living behavior, and multiplies the variation by the environmental load variation of the living behavior.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the environmental load is one of CO2 emission, water consumption, electricity consumption, and gas consumption.

5. A method for reducing environmental load generated from a plurality of different kinds of living behaviors in everyday life of a user, comprising:

storing, in a first memory, unimproved behavior amounts of the living behaviors;

storing, in a second memory, basic units of the living behaviors, one of the basic units being an environmental load generated per unit behavior amount of corresponding one of the living behaviors;

calculating, based on the unimproved behavior amounts, behavior amount variations of the living behaviors when each of the living behaviors increases by one unit behavior amount;

calculating an environmental load variation of a living behavior of the living behaviors when the living behavior increases by one unit behavior amount, by calculating a sum of values each obtained by multiplying one of the behavior amount variations by corresponding one of the basic units, to obtain a plurality of environmental load variations of the living behaviors;

assigning messages to the living behaviors based on the environment load variations of the living behaviors, the messages including a first message group and a second message group, (a) each message, included in the first message group, being assigned to corresponding one of the living behaviors which increases the environmental load, and being for reducing the behavior amount of the one of the living behaviors, and (b) each message, included in the second message group, being assigned to corresponding another of the living behaviors which decreases the environmental load, and being for increasing the behavior amount of the another of the living behaviors;

storing, in a third memory, improved behavior amounts of the living behaviors, one of the improved behavior amounts of corresponding one of the living behaviors being measured when one of the messages which is assigned to the one of the living behaviors is presented to the user;

calculating an environmental load reduction of a living behavior of the living behavior by (a) calculating a variation between one of the unimproved behavior amounts of the living behavior and one of the improved behavior amounts of the living behavior, and (b) multiplying the variation by the environmental load variation of the living behavior, to obtain a plurality of environmental load reductions of the living behaviors; and

selecting one of the messages which is assigned to one of the living behaviors has the largest environmental load reduction.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein

the unimproved behavior amounts are unimproved daily behavior amounts of each of the living behaviors of the user, and

the improved behavior amounts are improved daily behavior amounts of each of living behaviors of the user.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein calculating the environmental load reduction of the living behavior calculates the variation between an average of the unimproved daily behavior amounts of the living behavior and an average of the improved daily behavior amounts of the living behavior, and multiplies the variation by the environmental load variation of the living behavior.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the environmental load is one of CO2 emission, water consumption, electricity consumption, and gas consumption.