Decision Making and Innovation are facilitated through utilizing a number of tools. The problems tools can be applied to range from large complex problems like dealing with man-made green house gas (GHG) emissions and energy independence. At the smaller, personal scale, there are tools that facilitate the development of consumer product solutions such as consumer electronics and household appliances and tools. One example is a green-living solution is a 'dashboard' to make it easy to correlate home electricity, natural gas (or fuel oil), and water consumption with activities such as cooling with air conditioning, warming with a furnace, washing and drying clothes, and taking a shower. This helps to change our behavior to become more efficient in using limited and expensive resources because we see how much is used by each significant household activity. By dashboards we mean the interactive visual displays that make it easy to understand how our actions influence outcomes, for example, when and how much gas, electricity or water your household is consuming based upon what appliances your are using in your home.
