Beyond making and receiving calls and messages, our phones allow us to keep up with friends and family, pay bills, and stay entertained.
But what if you could also use your phone for the good of the planet?
If your phone is an inseparable part of your day, make the most of it by making it an extension of your green lifestyle. Here are 8 apps that will help you live more consciously.
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1.Ecosia: Search Engine with a Conscience
If you frequently use your phone for online lookups, consider switching to Ecosia, a web browser and search engine that plants trees each time you search and protects your privacy at the same time.
Ecosia works by using the ad revenue from your searches to plant trees in deforested areas around the globe.
With each search, you help remove 1kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
The company, beyond being carbon-neutral, also runs on 100% renewable energy via its own solar plant.
Download Ecosia on Android and iOS.
2. ThredUP: Giving Secondhand Clothes a Second Life
Did you know that in the US, 85% of used clothes end up in landfills or burned?
Also, the average person throws away roughly 37 kilograms of textiles in a year. The sad part is, majority of these can still be reused or recycled.
Thankfully, there are businesses like ThredUP that help keep perfectly usable clothes from ending up in landfills by giving them a second life—in somebody else’s closet.
ThredUP’s app allows you to thrift gently used (and even new) women’s and kids’ clothing from over 35,000 brands.
If you have clothing, bags, and shoes that no longer fit you, you can even sell them on ThredUP in exchange for cash or credit.
The ThredUP app is available for download in Android and iOS.
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3. Good on You: Wear the Change You Want to See
Looking for sustainably and ethically made clothes is sometimes challenging, with the volume of clothing brands you have to sift through and the lack of information available online or elsewhere.
Here’s where Good on You comes in handy. The ethical fashion app lets you make informed shopping choices by rating clothing companies in the following areas:
- People: This looks at whether a brand treats and pays workers fairly.
- Planet: This rates companies on their environmental footprint, including waste management, resource and energy use, and carbon emissions.
- Animals: Good on You also checks whether a brand uses animal products and, if it does, what their animal welfare policies are.
Get the Good on You app on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
4. PaperKarma: Stop Junk Mail with Just a Snap
Are you one of those people who always ends up with a pile of catalogues, credit card offers, solicitation letters, and unwanted snail mail no matter how hard you try to go paperless?
You’re not alone. There are millions of people on the planet who have the same problem. And that easily equates to billions of unwanted mail ending up in landfills.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the patience to look for the fine print to opt out of unsolicited mail.
Thankfully there’s PaperKarma to help simplify the unsubscribe process.
All you need to do is take a photo of the paper mail or catalog, hit ‘Unsubscribe,’ and you’re done!
PaperKarma is available on a monthly, yearly, and lifetime plan (but offers a free trial). It’s available in Android and iOS.
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5. JouleBug: Making Sustainable Fun
If you ever need an extra push to make more sustainable choices, here’s an app that lets you track your environmental impact and have fun at the same time.
Sustainability app JouleBug is the ‘easy way to make your everyday habits more sustainable, at home, work, and play.’
With each Action (eco-friendly challenges or tasks) you complete, the app rewards you with points and badges.
It also has a social component, allowing you to compete with friends on who’s the most sustainable as well as join local and national Challenges.
JouleBug is available on the App Store and Google Play.
6. Giki Badges: Shop with a Conscience
Want to make planet-friendly consumer purchases when you do your groceries?
Giki Badges is a shopping app that lets you discover healthy, sustainable, and ethical supermarket products.
Use Giki Badges to scan a product’s barcode and see how it fares in terms of health, sustainability, and fairness.
You can download it from the App Store and Play Store.
Note: Giki Badges is currently only available in the UK.
Read: 10 Ways to Make Money While Saving the Environment
7.OLIO: Food-Sharing Made Simple
Worldwide, 1.3 billion tonnes of food gets lost or wasted every year. Sadly, most of it end up in landfills, where it generates methane and contributes to climate change.
Thankfully there’s an app that lets you combat food waste and more.
OLIO is a free sharing app that lets you give food and other household items to people nearby.
Just snap a photo of the item you want to give away, provide a description, and add pickup details. If someone nearby fancies it, they can get in touch with you. You not only help fight waste, you help a neighbour in need too!
OLIO is available on Android and iOS.
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8. HappyCow: Plant-Based Restaurant Guide
Looking for inspiration to get started or continue on your plant-based journey?
HappyCow is a healthy food locator that lets you find restaurants that offer vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.
The app has information on plant-based shops and restos in more than 180 countries, including health food stores, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets in your locale.
Additionally, users can leave reviews and add recommendations of their own.
The app also provides helpful diet tips and vegan recipes.
HappyCow is available for Android and iOS.
These are just some of the apps that we use to help us stick to making eco-friendly lifestyle choices.
Got a favourite eco-friendly app? Don’t keep it a secret! Share it with us by leaving a comment below!
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