Every day, we strive to live more sustainably, but some paths are more complicated than others. One of the most straightforward and accessible methods to become more sustainable is a smartphone click away. Apps are here to help you live a better life by making your life easier and filling in some gaps.
Here are a few apps we’ve tested and downloaded to help to live a more sustainable lifestyle. While several apps are available, these have been tried and proven to improve your quality of life.
Top Sustainable Apps
1. Ecosia
Ecosia is a crowd-sourced search engine that donates 80% of its earnings to plant trees. The app shows you search results from major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Ecosia is configured to filter out ads from those search engines and only shows you ads that benefit eco-initiatives.
Ecosia works globally and discloses monthly financial reports to ensure accountability. They also claim that the company will never employ third-party trackers or sell your data to third-party advertising. You can find this app on the website and its app on iOS and Android.
2. Giki
Giki, a green app launched in spring 2018 by the same-named social enterprise, is a green app that provides ethical information about over 280,000 home products ranging from food and drink to cosmetics. They based their rankings on “13 badges” that show how ethical, sustainable, or healthy produce they are.
One feature is scanning the product’s barcode to see its rating and category. If the product receives a low rating, alternatives are recommended. You may also select which badges are most valuable to you, allowing you to make decisions based on your own environmental or ethical concerns. This app is available on Android and Apple devices.
3. Kitche
Food waste is a massive problem around the world. Research suggests that 1/3 of the food produced in the world goes to waste. Food waste is costly to both our society and our environment; and it is expensive to the economy as well, wasting $2.6 trillion per year, including $700 billion of environmental costs and $900 billion of social costs.
Luckily, Kitche is an app that encourages us to plan our meals better, find recipes and plan our shopping. Kitche (pronounced ‘kitsch’) enables users to scan grocery store receipts or upload online shopping receipts, allowing this sustainable app to register your ingredients in its software. After that, it will consult its extensive recipe database to make meal plans based on the food in the refrigerator and the kitchen cabinets. In addition, it warns you when things are getting close to their expiration dates. Download here for Android and iOS.
4. AWorld
This app aims to help users do simple, sustainable initiatives in their daily lives and track our cumulative carbon footprint. The United Nations developed it to assist citizens in combating climate change.
AWorld allows you to record actions such as having a shorter shower, bringing your bag to the grocery store, and turning off the lights when you leave a room. You can then view the effects of your actions, such as the amount of water, power, and carbon emissions avoided. The objective is to encourage you to evaluate your progress in fun and informative way. Download the app for Apple or Android.
5. Tap
Tap is an app that helps you find refill stations for water bottles, coffee cups, and food containers. The app is available on both Android and iOS and works offline. The app lists all the refill stations near you and calculates the distance between them to help you decide which one to visit. Refill stations are becoming increasingly popular as people are becoming more environmentally conscious and care about their carbon footprint. Download here.
6. Cleanfox
Email is an important part of everyday operations for businesses. However, sending emails can be harmful to the environment and our health. 320 billion emails are sent and received daily, and nearly 85% of emails are spam. That’s a lot of unnecessary emails being created. Fortunately, Cleanfox is at your service! Their user-friendly application can not only erase junk email but also unsubscribe you, putting an end to the problem on the spot. Get on Google Play or App Store.
7. Happy Cow
Happy Cow is a mobile app that can help you locate vegan-friendly restaurants in your area. Its simple interface allows you to browse menus and prices, find restaurants near you, and read reviews and ratings from other app users. You can put your favorite dishes into your favorites list, rate the app and share your experiences. The app is available across iOS and Android devices. Download on Google Play or App Store.
8. My Plastic Diary
This app tracks exactly how much plastic you consume in your daily life. The app will help you become aware of how much plastic you use and encourage you to reduce and reuse plastic products as much as possible. It will also help you identify where most of the plastic you use comes from. The app then recommends strategies to reduce plastic consumption and rewards you for your efforts. Knowledge is power, and knowing just how much plastic you consume can inspire you to make changes in your life. The My Plastic Diary app is available for iOS and Android devices.
9. HowGood
HowGood is a sustainable app that helps people find sustainable products. This app allows you to search for sustainable products by brand, category, or keyword. Its database has over 200,000 products that can help you find sustainable brands for everything from food to electronics. They also provide ratings divided into three sectors: Growing Guidelines, Processing Practices, and Company Conduct. Get involved here.
10. EcoMatcher
This app allows you to plant trees anywhere in the world or send a tree as a birthday present. You can also view the exact location of your planted tree and communicate with the farmer caring for it for up-to-date information. Using EcoMatcher to plant trees can help you contribute to environmental sustainability by planting trees that will absorb CO2 and help fight climate change. EcoMatcher is available on both iOS and Android devices.
Author’s Note
Over the past decade, technology innovation has revolutionized the way people live. Most aspects of our lives have become dependent on technology, from cooking to running businesses. As technology continues to evolve, sustainability is also becoming increasingly important. Apps have also developed alongside technology and are evolving to become more sustainable.
We must make more sustainable apps and websites to make a more sustainable world. This will mean rethinking how we design our apps. For example, we must balance resource utilization, data access, and algorithmic efficiency. We also need to design for social good, which might mean adding features that allow a person to donate to a charity easily from their app.
But most importantly, we need to design an app with a purpose that resonates with the users’ values and goals. We should always ask ourselves why a user would want to use an app and what value it will bring them. It might even mean designing an app that brings awareness to an issue like plastic waste or encourages users to take action! The possibilities are endless!
