Environmental Apps for Sustainability
Over the last decade, the continued proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and computers has enhanced our ability to express ourselves, form dynamic social networks, and discover and/or spread new ideas. These devices have and will continue to transform our daily lives in many different ways.
Can our devices help further the mission of sustainability?
Right now, we have the greatest accessibility and power to collectively effect positive change. Through apps, our ideas, actions, and networks can help preserve the environment, building a sustainable future for the generations to follow.
What are some of the most common apps that you use? Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat and Netflix come to my mind of the apps that I use every day. With the buzzes in my pocket and even just the apps themselves on my home screen, I find myself constantly checking and browsing my phone throughout the day (including right when I wake up and before I go to bed). Apps influence our actions real-time and are an integral part of our lives, influencing and amplifying our behaviors and attitudes. There are so many chances throughout the day to impact sustainability. These tools, due to their accessibility and ability to capture our attention, can help sustain our focus, inspire us with ideas for sustainability, and provide unique communication channels to help facilitate our individual impact towards the mission of sustainability.
After extensive research of many environmental apps, I selected the most popular apps that have the ability to impact sustainability. I approached my research by looking at various articles and videos, including many lists of what many believed were the top environmental apps out there. My criteria and selection of my top environmental apps are based on their popularity (at least 10,000 downloads), reviews on the apple store and google play store, and how up-to-date the app is. Furthermore, I looked at the level of engagement of the app’s interface, information on the app’s website, date of articles and reviews from users, and responses from the app team themselves. After my research, I concluded that a majority of the environmental apps out there have minimal downloads, mostly negative reviews, or declining applicability for users today.
Here are the environmental apps (in no particular order) that I have chosen to help you reduce your environmental footprint and possibly save you money on your utility bill. These apps do not have to only accommodate the most eager environmental enthusiasts, but anyone looking to promote change. The very presence of these apps on your mobile devices may even influence your behaviors and attitudes or just serve as a reminder to go green.
JouleBug
For anyone competitive or prideful in their environmental actions, JouleBug is an application that can be played among friends, coworkers or one’s self to motivate and build sustainability-oriented habits. Did you take a shorter shower this morning? Ride a public transit? Or use a reusable mug when you went to Starbucks? Every time you do something good for the environment, JouleBug rewards you with pins, badges, and points based on your specific actions. You can follow your friends and neighbors to share your favorite stories or connect to local and national leaderboards to see who’s being the greenest. JouleBug also offers a feature where organizations can personalize their initiatives through a private network, set up challenges for their employees, and track the impact on the environment that their team is making. Discover the hundreds of sustainable actions and ensure your environmental deeds don’t go unnoticed with JouleBug.
Platform support: App Store, Google Play
Cost: Free
App Store: 5-star rating
Google Play: 4.2-star rating
Energy Consumption Analyzer
With over 100,000 downloads and a 4.5 star rating on the google play store, Energy Consumption Analyzer (ECAS) is one of the most relevant and quality energy analyzers out there. Users add their meters for gas, electricity or water, and ECAS will calculate the average normalized rate of consumption per hour, day, week, or month (between two readings). Features include a line graph showing the energy consumption rate over time, a bar graph of the total amount of used energy during each day, week, and month, and the amount of money spent given the amount of energy used. ECAS is versatile in its meter readings for various situations including: indirect metering, prepaid, bidirectional, and virtual meters, and automatic recordings during meter exchanges or resets. In addition to meter readings, ECAS can also record sensor data like temperature or wind speed. With its convenient features like pinch zoom and color coding and comprehensive charts, ECAS is a multi-faceted tool that can be used to analyze and reduce your energy consumption.
Platform Support: Google Play
Cost: Free
Google Play: 5-star rating
PaperKarma
Using reports from the US Postal Service and US population statistics, Mike Volpe, CMO at Hubspot, estimated that each US household receives about six pieces of junk mail every day. Aggregating the number of junk mail received by each US household per year, he determined that junk mail kills around 2.6 million trees per year (weighing nearly twice as much of all the US tanks in the world, combined)! So, what can you do to help?
PaperKarma stops unwanted paper mail from being delivered to your home or work. Started by two founders who despise unwanted paper mail, they created PaperKarma to not only mitigate the environmental stress caused by unsolicited mail, but to also help business with the associated printing and delivering costs of distributing their material to the masses. All you have to do is take a picture of your unwanted mail, press Send, and you get unsubscribed from the particular business. With PaperKarma’s secure and easy-to-use system, downloading the app is a no-brainer.
Platform support: App Store, Google Play
Cost: Free
App Store: 4.2-star rating
Google Play: 4.5-star rating
Waze
You’ve probably heard of Waze or already have it downloaded on your phone. For those who have never heard of Waze, it’s a navigation app that uses crowdsourcing to find the fastest routes reducing congestion, accidents, and waste emissions. Some other common features include: alerts for speed traps, accidents, road hazards, or traffic jams, the most up to date maps, and navigation to the cheapest gas stations on your route; however, Waze also offers a few unique features that you may not know about.
Waze partnered with the Zalul Environmental Association, which is dedicated to protecting Israel’s waterways, to alert Waze users whenever they are passing by or at a polluted waterway, noting who the polluter is. This feature ensures safety for recreational waterway users and promotes awareness to increase authoritative enforcement of Israel’s seas, rivers, and lakes. Waze also partnered with the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) in Israel to reduce the amount of wildlife deaths resulting from road-kill. Through road-kill logging and tracking, SPNI gathers data to discover dangerous areas for wildlife and to determine solutions for their safe passage. Not only does this feature help prevent accidents, but it also helps maintain ecosystem balance through the preservation of different species. Arrive to work on time and join the millions who have downloaded Waze.
Platform Support: App Store, Google Play
Cost: Free
App Store: 4.8-star rating
Google Play: 4.6-star rating
Seafood Watch
Created by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seafood Watch is an online program and mobile app that gives seafood-lovers information about the sea-creatures that they are consuming and sustainable options including brands, eateries, and distributors. I visited the online program and typed in “catfish.” The application responded with “U.S. farmed catfish or blue catfish caught in the Chesapeake Bay” as the most sustainable choice and “imported catfish (aka pangasius) except when its eco-certified source [is] recommended by Seafood Watch” as an option to avoid. I also found a list of the best catfish recommendations including catfish type, method (i.e. indoor tanks, set gillnets, ponds, etc.), location, and general information and justifications as to why the recommendations are a good choice. With its large database of popular seafood items, Seafood Watch is an application that I would definitely check out for very useful information and recommendations of seafood choices with the least environmental impacts.
Platform Support: Web, App Store, Google Play
Cost: Free
App Store: 2.8-star rating
Google Play: 4.1-star rating
Conclusion
In conclusion, although there are many environmental apps out there, only a few provide users with value and applicability to actually impact sustainability. Without more rewards for sustainability participation, increased awareness and proliferation of environmental sustainability, through utility savings or environmental enthusiasm, will simply not be enough. In order to fully utilize the potential of our smartphones and increase the reach of sustainable initiatives, environmental apps need to be more convenient, engaging, and rewarding in some way.
Honorable Mentions
Love Food Hate Waste
https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Made by the Waste & Resources Action Program in 2007 in order to reduce the amount of food waste in the United Kingdom, Love Food Hate Waste gives you recipes to create delicious meals using the leftovers from your fridge. Check out the hundreds of recipes on their website to help you waste less.
Good On You-Ethical Fashion
With over 10,000 downloads and a 4.4-star rating on the google play store, Good on You was not included on the list for its predominant applicability for European users; however, Good on You can provide value to any shopper out there. Good on You helps you shop ethically and sustainability with criteria on thousands of fashion brands including business practices and their sustainability efforts regarding animals and the environment.
Leafully (No longer available)
https://appsforenergy.devpost.com/submissions/7987-leafully
Born from hackathon in 2012, Leafully was awarded the Apps for Energy Grand Prize and received $100,00 for its practical applications and intelligible user interface. Using tangible units of energy, Leafully helped you understand your energy usage and environmental footprint. Ever wonder how your electricity usage is directly impacting the environment? Leafully showed you how many trees it would take to offset the pollution caused by your energy consumption, approximating gas and car usage in addition to electricity usage.