Revive, recycle and rejoice

Going ‘green’ is a popular buzzword today and whether you’re doing your bit to keep up with Joneses or because you’ve decided to respect the earth and live more ‘sustainably’, there are ways in which technology can help you achieve this goal. We tell you about four apps that are great way to kickstart your plans to keep a watch on your carbon-footprint.

– Your drive to go green can start from the first step – what you shop. Use the GoodGuide app that breaks it down with a simple rating system – from 0 to 10 – with 10 being the highest and best. The rating is based on three factors – health, environment and society – and the app tells you exactly why the product, and the company that manufactures it, earned this rating. The app makes things easier by letting you scan the barcode of a product and instantly find out its rating, or alternately scroll through the sections from personal care to appliances, to find out which products have the best rating. Although the app features mostly American brands, you will find a lot of familiar names, making it a decent option to use if you are serious about living more ‘sustainably’.

– For a generation that loves to share – everything from selfies to foodstagrams – the JouleBug App provides great incentive to recycle – you get to show off! (Log in with your Facebook account for maximum effect.) The basic premise of the app is that everytime you do something that’s environmentally friendly, you win points – which you can broadcast on social media – or you can scroll down to look at the yearly impact of your action. For example, turning of your computer when you’re done earns you a bonus point, plus the app tells you that you’ve saved the world 54kWh of energy – and 40kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. Using reusable boxes to pack your lunch, filling reusable bottles instead of buying bottled water or choose to walk someplace instead of driving – the app gives you the real time impact of your actions, and if that isn’t motivating, what is?

– If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then this app could probably do more than all the ‘recycle’ campaigns in the world. Ignore the strangely spelled name and just download it to access hundreds of do-it-yourself ideas to up-cycle simple things around the house into something pretty. Bits and pieces and odds and ends that would normally end up discarded can, with a little inspiration from here, turn into something really pretty – think old bulbs filled with water and hung upside down to hold tiny flowers, old cans covered in rope to make an earthy centrepiece, old wine corks inside wooden frames to make coasters – with this apps, the options are endless and a lot less waste is generated.

- A great way to save on money as well as reduce your carbon footprint is to carpool – and RideApp uses technology to make it easier to hitch a ride. Founded by Pune-resident Sid Saha, Ride is an app that allows its users to carpool to work and back, riders pay a nominal ₹3.50 per kilometre while drivers get paid ₹3 per km for every rider they host. The app was inspired by Saha’s visit to the US in February this year where he witnessed the ‘Carpool Lane’ concept. Since launching on July 28, RideApp has had 120 people signing up – 40 drivers and 80 riders – and the initial response has been encouraging, says Saha.

The app asks for basic details like phone number, name and email while signing up, and to ensure genuineness, Saha says they call and verify phone numbers and submitting a head-shot is mandatory to use the app. Although currently the app is only for Pune, expansion plans to other cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi are on the cards.

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