For consumers keen to do their bit in terms of reducing their carbon footprint and countering climate change, it can be hard to know where to start. Making the switch to a more sustainable lifestyle is not always easy. With this in mind, an array of sustainable apps are available to inform your decisions and help you make more sustainable lifestyle choices.
This article looks at a selection of apps available for download in 2022 that can help you reduce your carbon footprint.
1. Citymapper
With a 4.8 Google Play star rating and more than 10 million downloads as of this writing, Citymapper is touted as the ultimate transport app. It allows users to compare their travel options in real-time across all modes of transport. If you are visiting a city for the first time, the app can show you the best public transport options. Citymapper enables you to confidently use public transportation, avoid the need to rely on taxi cabs and Uber, and help decrease emissions and pollution.
Public transport is better for cities—and for the people who live and work in them. Public transport is also better for the environment and your wallet. Citymapper provides the tools necessary to quantify the impact that your transportation choices have on the world. As a result, you may choose to move away from using wasteful, single-occupancy vehicles, helping you to save money and the environment at the same time.
2. Oroeco
Free to download on Android and iOS, Oroeco helps you track your carbon footprint by showing you which aspects of your lifestyle are the largest contributors to climate change. Oroeco approximates the size of your carbon footprint based on your everyday decisions, including what you even drink, other purchases you make, your chosen methods of transportation, how frequently you travel, and the amount of energy you use.
After you have assessed what your carbon footprint looks like, Oroeco helps you to set about reducing it. The app provides 50 personalized tips with frugal ideas for how you can cut back on emissions.
3. LiveGreen
Tracking nutritional information helps you to assume responsibility for what you eat, and tracking spending encourages you to take charge of your finances. Similarly tracking your carbon footprint is an important first step in reducing it.
In addition to tracking your “foodprint,” the LiveGreen app encourages you to fly less, drive less, buy used more often, cut out single-use plastics, and eat fewer animal products. Packed with special features, including a carbon footprint calculator, LiveGreen provides a clear guide to the lifestyle changes necessary to decrease your greenhouse gas emissions.
4. MyEarth
MyEarth is a diary that helps you understand your daily energy usage by helping you track carbon emissions generated by your day-to-day activities. Comprising five separate categories—namely travel, electricity, recycling, usage, and food—the goal of the app is to help you take small steps towards a bigger impact by helping you to identify, understand, and prioritize energy saving activities.
5. Ecosia
A search engine like Google, Ecosia uses its profits to plant trees. Web surfers can help save the planet every time they search the net, supporting tree planting that benefits the environment by sequestering carbon.
Using this simple yet effective concept, Ecosia has planted tens of millions of trees to date. The Internet search engine makes it easy to switch from platforms like Google. Once you have made the change, something simple as browsing the Internet becomes an eco-friendly activity.
6. Refill
More than a travel app, Refill helps you to cut down on plastic waste when you’re away from home. It finds nearby locations where you can top up your reusable water containers. Having mapped more than 274,000 Refill Stations globally offering water refills, Refill helps you find a location to fill up rather than being forced to purchase a disposable plastic water bottle.
7. Carbon Footprint and CO2 Tracker
Featuring a GPS-based algorithm to allow you to keep track of your journey modes, this app automatically predicts and tracks your transportation emissions. This provides you with useful awareness and can motivate you to make carbon-conscious transportation and dietary choices.
Carbon Footprint and CO2 Tracker also features a learning section that is updated weekly. It is very user-friendly; all you need to do is answer a few questions and the app sets goals to help you achieve a 7.6 percent reduction in your carbon footprint. Users also benefit from a monthly CO2 offset report, as well as live CO2 emission information.
8. Good On You
Good On You is an rating app focusing on brand ethics that enables shoppers to learn how sustainable clothing items are prior to making a purchase. The app rates each clothing brand based on its treatment of people, animals, and the planet, helping you to ensure that the clothes you wear support the causes you care about.