Financial simulation platform for evaluating ROI and risk of sustainability investments for SMEs.
EcoForecast helps small and medium-sized businesses make data-driven decisions about green transitions — replacing guesswork with financial modeling, risk simulation, and AI-powered insights.
SMEs want to go green, but face real barriers:
- Carbon audits are expensive and inaccessible 💸
- Sustainability consultants are out of reach for most small businesses 🏢
- Operational data is scattered across bills, receipts, and invoices 📄
- The financial impact of green investments is unclear and risky ❓
EcoForecast replaces the leap of faith with a model.
- Input your operational data — electricity, water, and fuel costs across 4 quarters
- Simulate your current vs. sustainable cost trajectory over 20 years
- Visualize break-even timelines, cost comparisons, and carbon savings
- Ask EcoAdvisor — our AI chatbot — questions about your specific results
Users enter quarterly financial data: electricity usage & cost, water usage & cost, and fuel usage & cost across all four quarters of a year.
The backend runs a deterministic financial model that:
- Projects baseline vs. sustainable costs over a 20-year horizon
- Calculates break-even year for the green investment
- Estimates carbon emissions reduction year-over-year
EcoForecast computes:
- 💰 Year 1 cost comparison (baseline vs. sustainable)
- 📈 Investment vs. cumulative savings over time
- 🌿 Carbon footprint reduction trajectory
Powered by Groq + LLaMA 3, EcoAdvisor is an embedded chatbot on the results page. It receives your actual simulation data as context and answers questions like:
- "When do I break even?"
- "How much carbon will I save in 5 years?"
- "Is this investment worth it for my business?"
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React + Vite + Tailwind CSS |
| Backend | Node.js + Express + TypeScript |
| Database | MongoDB Atlas |
| AI Chatbot | Groq API (LLaMA 3.3 70B) |
| Simulation | Custom financial model |
EcoForecast/
├── src/ # React frontend
│ ├── components/ # Navbar, Hero, Services, etc.
│ ├── Pages/
│ │ └── Inputs/
│ │ ├── InputsPage.jsx # Quarterly data entry
│ │ ├── MyCompany.jsx # Company setup
│ │ └── Outputs/
│ │ ├── OutputPage.jsx # Results dashboard
│ │ └── Components/
│ │ ├── BreakEven.jsx
│ │ ├── graph1.jsx # Investment vs Year
│ │ ├── graph2.jsx # Cost comparison
│ │ ├── carbonFootPrintBar.jsx
│ │ └── EcoAdvisor.jsx # AI chatbot
├── server/
│ └── src/
│ ├── index.ts # Express server + all API routes
│ ├── calculations/ # Financial simulation engine
│ ├── repositories/ # MongoDB data access
│ └── types.ts
- Node.js 18+
- MongoDB Atlas account
- Groq API key (free at console.groq.com)
git clone https://github.com/rbose21-05/EcoForecast.git
cd EcoForecastnpm installcd server && npm installCreate server/.env:
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
PORT=5000
GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_api_key
cd server && npm run dev# From root directory
npm run devhttp://localhost:5173
| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|---|
| POST | /api/inputs |
Save single-quarter inputs |
| POST | /api/inputs/four-quarter |
Save full 4-quarter inputs |
| GET | /api/inputs/latest |
Fetch latest input document |
| GET | /api/outputs/:inputId |
Compute & return simulation results |
| POST | /api/chat |
EcoAdvisor AI chat |
EcoAdvisor is context-aware — it receives your simulation results automatically and can answer specific questions about your data.
Example questions to ask:
- "What does my break-even year mean?"
- "How can I improve my sustainability score?"
- "Is my fuel cost the biggest driver of emissions?"
- "What upgrades would have the most impact?"
- ✅ Full-stack TypeScript/JavaScript application
- ✅ Real financial simulation engine (not static estimates)
- ✅ 20-year projection with carbon trajectory modeling
- ✅ Context-aware AI chatbot with real simulation data
- ✅ Clean, intuitive dashboard with interactive charts
- ✅ MongoDB persistence for inputs and computed outputs
- Add industry-specific sustainability benchmarks
- Allow users to upload utility bills and invoices directly
- Expand the simulation model with more upgrade categories
- Add scenario comparison for different investment levels
- Improve EcoAdvisor with more detailed recommendation logic
- Generate downloadable reports for business owners
Built at a hackathon by a team passionate about making sustainability financially accessible for small businesses. This project was developed collaboratively across product ideation, frontend design, backend implementation, financial modeling, AI integration, testing, and presentation.