1. GOODGUIDE (FREE)
The GoodGuide is a guide to
environmental shopping, but it’s not
meant to make you run screaming
just because you see “chemical” in the
ingredients list. It’s more nuanced; letting
you scan a product’s barcode or search it, then giving
rankings based on health, environment, and societal
impact. It can even show up more info on the parent
company’s environmental policies. It’s only available in
the U.S., for now.
2. COMMUTE GREENER (FREE)
Commute Greener does what its name
suggests, giving you tailored suggestions
for your daily commute to make it as
low-emission as possible — from the
most efficient map routes to ride-sharing
suggestions in your area. It’s also meant to make you feel
mildly competitive, accumulating badges and rewards
as you become as green as possible. It’s the commuting
Olympics.
3. IRECYCLE (FREE)
This is pretty basic. If you have absolutely
no idea where your local recycling
facility is, download iRecycle and it’ll
find it for you. You can customize your
search based on what you’re trying to
recycle — including old VCR tapes! — and it’ll find the
nearest place for you, with all their contact information
and restrictions.
5. LEAFULLY (FREE)
Leafully isn’t designed to be complicated:
it’s an energy use app that alerts you when your energy
consumption is going overboard and needs to be pulled
back. It can only be used on four energy utility companies
at the moment, but if you’re one of their members you
can use it to monitor your consumption — and, cutely,
it measures your energy in trees.
6. PLUGSHARE (FREE)
Exclusively for those who’ve
taken the next step and bought
an electric car, Plugshare is an
app-map: it plots out every
electric charging station across
the U.S.. Obviously, this is a
massive bonus when you can’t just pull into any station
you like to charge — though hopefully, that’ll be the case
in the future.
7. CLIMATE COUNTS (FREE)
Climate Counts is an activism and
advocacy app. Its database contains
most of the world’s big companies, and
it ranks them according to their work
on climate change. Are they addressing
it, ignoring it, releasing details on how
green their production is, blocking
environmental laws in their country?
Climate Counts has the answers — the implication being
that, if a company scores low, you should vote with your
feet, and your money.
4. CARMA CARPOOLING
8. PAPERKARMA
(FREE ... INITIALLY)
(FREE)
Carma is a carpooling app for various
If you’re being assaulted by junk mail that’ll
parts of the U.S. that helps you find
just have to be recycled, PaperKarma is
people to carpool with and makes the
on the case. It asks users to take photos
whole begging-for-gas-money thing
of offending mail, including your name,
redundant: every member of the pool pays 20 cents per
address, and the sender’s details — and then
mile using credit on their app accounts, and most of that
it does the wrangling on your behalf to get
goes to the driver. You can find strangers along your route them to stop it. It’s hardly automatic, and there are charges
or use it to coordinate trips with friends.
involved, but it does seem to have a high success rate.
continued on pg. 14
MARCH 2019
|
WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE |
5