By Neila Columbo
September 18, 2012
Boston, Massachusetts – With an abundance of ‘green’ articles at our fingertips on how to make sustainable choices in the daily features of our lives and at home, SCGH is here to help parse through the vast web of information. Alas, these top ten smartphone apps below help us navigate through our day to manage our household and personal life, reduce our environmental footprint and learn some very interesting facts along the way that will impress even the most environmental savant.
Home
iViro help users create more sustainable homes and living spaces. Perform a customized energy analysis to receive a detailed overview of your home’s heat, cooling, electricity, water and appliance energy consumption patterns with annual cost and CO2 emission estimates. Additional features provide ideas on energy-saving alternatives and strategies to ensure your home is energy-efficient and cost-efficient while reducing its environmental impact.
Download Here (Free)
EcoCharge
A simple yet powerful concept, the EcoCharge app will ring an alarm when electronic devices are fully charged to increase battery life and prevent unnecessary energy use. In place of leaving a cellular phone or laptop continuously charging at home or work when the battery is fully charged, it helps users become more aware of energy use while providing great eco-friendly tips on how to stay connected and energy efficient with our favorite tech gadgets and devices.
Download Here ($0.99)
GoodGuide provides ratings for products and companies to help consumers assess their environmental, health and social performance. Its iPhone app allows users to browse its database, which includes 170,000 products ranging from food, personal care and household items, to find the most eco-friendly in each category, as well as a barcode scanning feature that provides details such as nutritional value, energy efficiency and ingredients.
Download here (Free)
Recyclebank rewards its members for making eco-friendly choices, providing points for daily activities such as recycling, water usage, energy efficiency, and purchasing green products. Members can view their points balance, report recycling activity to earn points and order rewards with its app.
Download here (Free)
Earth911.com’s iRecycle connects users to its comprehensive database of 100,000 recycling centers in the U.S.,including information on what can be recycled and what local recycling options are available. As well, the new version has a social sharing feature that allows you to share recycling searches via Facebook and Twitter.
Download here (Free)
Food
Designed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Seafood Watch interactive app helps users choose sustainable seafood and sushi options at restaurants and markets. It provides the most current recommendations for seafood and sushi as well as information about how each item should be fished or farmed. Its new Project FishMap feature lets you contribute to the app by sharing the names of restaurants and shops in the U.S. you have found sustainable seafood as well as how to locate spots other users have found. Download Here (Free)
Farmers Market Finder
Allows users to locate over 2,700 farmers markets across the U.S. Each farmers market has been verified from market organizers, and the app provides details on how to find CSAs, the types of farm produce and meat/poultry for sale, hours of operation, contact information, and real time data such as weather cancelations. The app is currently available to residents of California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington DC.
Download here (Prices range from $0.99 to $4.99)
Footprint
Carbon Footprint
Users can track fuel usage and find a number of interesting statistics that relate to driving habits and fuel efficiency of one’s vehicle. By entering information when fueling your gas tank, Carbon Footprint can calculate your miles per gallon, dollars per gallon, dollars per mile, and dollars per day. It also provides your projected carbon dioxide emissions in a year as well as your total carbon emissions to date.
Download Here ($0.99)
Created by Water Efficiency magazine to provide an accessible way for individuals to interactively learn about their ‘water footprint’ and how to reduce water consumption, this app calculates how much water you use across four categories: food, beverages, products, and household items. Users can search through items by category or alphabetically, and its “total” function calculator compares the water footprint of various items.
Download Here (Free)
ecoFootprint
Calculate your personal ecological footprint with statistics from the World Wildlife Fund with this multi-functional app, including your daily energy consumption, the food you eat (and how far it has to travel) to your carbon emissions from commuting activity and travel. The section “Ways to Improve Your Result” educates and shares ideas on ways to reduce your footprint.
Download Here (Free)
For related articles, see:
Success for Sustainable Sushi Smartphone App
This App Can Fight Forest Fires
National Parks App Helps Hikers Navigate Nature
© 2012 SCGH, LLC.
The post Top Ten Smartphone Apps for an Eco-Friendly Home and Lifestyle appeared first on Sierra Club Green Home.
