As said by the United Nations, climate change is the “defining issue of our time” and at the moment we are definitely not defining it. From ever changing weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Most of the environmental issues we see today can be linked to consumption, and unfortunately consumer habits are actually driving climate change. Did you know that we are currently overusing Earth’s natural resources with more than 70 percent, and that if everyone on earth lived like the average American we would need 5.2 planets to support us?
It’s really important to realise that as consumers, we have the collective strength to reduce carbon emissions and stop the global climate emergency. Luckily, there has been a huge increase in the number of not only firms, but individuals, who are working hard to raise awareness of the negative impact of consumerism, urging the public to really consider whether they need what they are shopping for, and to think of the processes that are used before items actually reach shop shelves before buying them. This increase in awareness over time has led to a changing landscape of consumer buying behaviour and the growing influence of sustainability. Consumer trends in 2020 suggest that concerned consumers are adopting a range of different measures to shop and live more sustainably. The most prominent lifestyle change and most popular method of supporting sustainability is that consumers are trying to cut down on single-use plastics. If you haven’t yet read our blog post on 10 Easy Swaps for Plastic Free January (and 2021) then we definitely recommend you have a look at it by clicking here! Another key trend in consumerism is that consumers are now shopping for brands with environmentally sustainable values, and there has also been a decrease in the consumption of meat and animal-based products.
Now, thanks to technology, you’re not on your own as you try to be more eco-friendly. That’s why we have devised the 10 best apps and services that can help you live a more sustainable life each day! Keep reading this blog post to find out the best sustainability apps to download today!
1. Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go is the app that lets you rescue delicious, unsold food from local shops and restaurants so it doesn't go to waste.
Did you know that each year, 1/3 of food produced in the world goes to waste, and it is responsible for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions? Too Good To Go are on a mission to change that - are you with them? At Stroodles we definitely are!
Too Good To Go dream of a planet with no food waste, and every day they’re working on making that a reality. Their app is the most direct way for you to get involved - just download, log on, and get saving perfectly good, surplus food from your local stores. It’s always a surprise and an instant good deed for the planet.
Image credit: Too Good To Go
Their mission is to inspire and empower everyone to take action against food waste. They know that to live and breathe this every day, they need to turn our words into actions. With this in mind they have set out a new ambition - to contribute in every way they can to building the global food waste movement. It's only when we all come together to fight food waste, that we'll be able to generate a positive change in society.
Too Good To Go is a community of Waste Warriors fighting food waste together. As a user, save meals from stores and food professionals around you! This app definitely gets a huge thumbs up from Mr. Stroodles. Have a look at their website, and download their app from the App Store or Google Play today!
2. Ecosia
Ecosia is a search engine based in Berlin, Germany, that donates 80% or more of its profits to non profit organizations that focus on reforestation and planting trees where they are needed most.
Ecosia is a search engine like Google, but very different: they use our ad revenue to plant trees where nature and people need them most. The Ecosia community has already planted millions of trees in Ethiopia, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, as well as many other biodiversity hotspots.
After paying for its operational and marketing costs, Ecosia invests the rest in long-term projects and tree-planting organisations. That’s how, by Ecosia’s own count, by July 2020, Ecosia had surpassed 100 million trees planted in total, resulting in over 50,000 metric tonnes of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere each month. . It also takes a “first, do no harm” approach by building solar farms that cover the energy required to operate Ecosia itself.
Ecosia considers itself a social business, is CO2-negative and claims to support full financial transparency and protect the privacy of its users. Ecosia is also B Lab-certified.
Image Credit: Wired.com
Privacy, not just promises
They're interested in trees, not your data: they don’t save your searches, they don’t track the websites you visit, they don’t sell your data to advertisers, and your searches are always SSL-encrypted.
CO2 positive
CO2 neutral is not enough. Thanks to their solar plant and the Ecosia forests around the world, each of your searches removes around 1 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Radical transparency
Trust has to be earned. That’s why they publish their monthly financial reports and tree-planting receipts on their website. They also signed a legal contract that requires us to stay true to their not-for-profit cause, forever.
Get the free browser extension and plant trees with every search! There is an Ecosia app for iOS and Android, why not download today and get searching (and planting trees!) - Mr. Stroodles definitely is!
3. TAP App
Tap is the world's only drinking network to offer free, filtered water while generating revenue for cities and communities.
Tap wants to make it easy for you to find a place to fill up your water bottle, in turn eliminating purchases of single-use plastic water bottles. The concept is deliberately simple and straightforward. The free app works with the GPS locator on your phone to find nearby water fountains, water bottle refill stations, or “water ATMs” where people can purchase clean water for refillable containers. Local results appear on a map, just as though you were searching for the nearest coffee shop or gas station.
Filters on the app's search function include Drinking Fountain, Counter Service, Water Container, Water Cooler, or Water ATM. Participating cafes and restaurants that provide water will display a Tap decal on their doors or windows.
The ultimate goal of the project is to create a database of “millions” of water sources and make refillable water bottles as convenient as one-time-use plastic bottles. At Stroodles we are all for fighting against single use plastic water bottles, so we really love this app! Check out their website here, or go and download it onto your phones now!
4. HappyCow
HappyCow is a top vegan app in 180+ countries. The free healthy food locator is the #1 vegan and vegetarian restaurant in app guides! HappyCow makes it easy to find gluten-free, vegan, or vegetarian restaurants near you, as well as see 700,000+ reviews, or search up plant-based restaurants anywhere in the world when traveling. HappyCow’s purpose is to make healthy food easy to find and more accessible.
HappyCow was founded in 1999 as a public service to assist travelers and people everywhere find plant-based / vegan options and healthy food. Since 1999, HappyCow has helped users find vegan-options at 135,000+ restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores in 180+ countries. Now it's easy to find vegan food delivery nearby, or get takeaways!
Image Credit: WorldWide Insure
Today, their online community has grown to include members from around the world who are passionate about the vegan lifestyle as a healthy, compassionate, and environmentally sustainable way of living. More than simply a restaurant and health food store guide, HappyCow is an ever-evolving online hub that serves millions worldwide each month!
Download the world famous HappyCow apps for iOS and Android so you can find vegan restaurants in 185+ countries while travelling! Or you can access all the delicious vegan food near you via their website here.
5. PaperKarama
PaperKarma is a mobile app that stops junk mail – real paper mail sent to your home or work, not email. Their mission is to help you take control of your home or business mailbox so you receive only the mail you want.
How does PaperKarma work?
The PaperKarma app helps you stop junk mail. Simply snap a picture of your unwanted mail and press “Unsubscribe” to remove yourself from one of our partners’ marketing lists. That’s it – just snap your unwanted mail away! In about 24 hours you’ll receive a notification that you’ve been unsubscribed. You can always use the app to check on the status of your unsubscribe requests.
Does PaperKarma help the environment?
Each US household receives about 850 pieces of unwanted junk mail per year. Think about that number, for a moment. It’s staggering! In other words, for every mail you want, you receive about 20 unwanted ones. This adds up to more than 100 BILLION pieces of mail per year for the US. Moreover, 44% of these solicitations go into landfills unopened! The damage to the environment, carbon footprint and wasted energy are considerable.
Empty your recycling bin for good(!) and stop unsolicited postal mail with the PaperKarma stop junk mail app! Visit there website here for more info!
6. Olio
OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too!
OLIO is super easy! To make an item available, simply open the app, add a photo, description, and when and where the item is available for pick-up. To access items, simply browse the listings available near you, request whatever takes your fancy and arrange a pick-up via private messaging.
Image credit: Techcrunch.com
Like us here at Stroodles, OLIO believes that small actions can lead to big change. Collectively – one rescued cupcake, carrot or bottle of lotion at a time – we can build a more sustainable future where our most precious resources are shared, not thrown away. Join today!
Their vision is for millions of hyper local food sharing networks all around the world. They believe OLIO can help create a world in which nothing of value goes to waste, and every single person has enough to eat – without destroying our planet in the process.
We’ve all got the Olio app downloaded here at Stroodles HQ, and we definitely recommend you download it too! Check out their website here for even more info!
7. ThredUp
thredUP is an online consignment and thrift store where you can buy and sell high-quality secondhand clothes. Find your favorite brands at up to 90% off!
Our love for constant newness has come at too high a price for our planet. Shopping secondhand reduces the cost of fashion by giving new life to used clothes. Resale moves us one step closer to a circular fashion future.
At thredUP, they believe in a sustainable fashion future. Thrifting is about more than just finding amazing deals on your favorite brands. It’s about shopping with intention, rejecting throwaway fashion culture, and standing for sustainability. The clothes we wear have the power to create change.
That’s why they have launched a mobile app which is available on the App Store as well as on the Play Store! Their new app lets you filter items by brand, category, and size, place orders using credit card or PayPal, and request Clean Out bags to make room for all your new threds! Check out their website here, and why not try downloading their app?
8. Giki
Giki is a free to download mobile app that provides ethical and sustainability information about more than 250,000 products in UK supermarkets. The 13 'badges' that are awarded to products based on how ethical, sustainable or healthy they are.
Just scan the barcode, see which badges the product wins, and check out the alternatives for new ideas. We can all make a difference, one step at a time!
Image credit: Giki
Giki was set up because the Giki team think the impact of humanity on the planet is too great and they want to help people reduce their environmental impact. And they do that by providing simple-to-use, easy-to-access, free information around products so people can make the decision they want to make around what they buy!
Their mission is to help people live more sustainably, which is what we are passionate about here at Stroodles too - so this app also gets a huge thumbs up from us! Visit their website for even more exciting info!
9. iHuerting
iHuerting is the best app for your urban garden! iHuerting will help you take care of your orchard on your terrace or garden in a simple and entertaining way!
iHuerting helps more than 50,000 users around the world take care of their garden at home. Their App will remind you when to water, fertilize or prevent pests in each of your plants. iHuerting will also help you to identify and eliminate pests, and you can also access the best collection of recipes and tips to care for and treat your garden!
Image Credit: Apps Drop
How does it work?
It’s very easy. You must select which plants you have, and iHuerting will remind you when to water, fertilize and apply pest prevention treatments to each of your plants. It will also recommend a plant to add to your garden according to the date you consult!
How amazing does that sound? Check out their website here to learn even more.
Mr. Stroodles gives this one a stamp of approval for sure!
Image credit: Green Kitchen Stories
10. Green Kitchen
Green Kitchen is filled with tasty and inspiring vegetarian food with ingredients straight from nature and a bare minimum of gluten, sugar and dairy products. Enjoy and be delighted by creative recipes with drop dead gorgeous photos and detailed, easy to follow, instructions.
Features of the Green Kitchen app:
I mean what is not to love about this app? This is definitely one to be downloaded, and can be found on the App store today! Or check out their great website here.
These are just 10 of our favourite apps, but as technology is constantly evolving and more and more amazing apps like these are being launched, please do let us know if you have any other great sustainable apps that we can add to this list - we’d really love to hear from you all! At Stroodles we believe that it’s so, so important to understand, and raise awareness of the hugely detrimental impact consumerism is having on our planet, and on climate change. We believe that everyone should consider living a more sustainable lifestyle, and love the fact that apps like the ones talked about in this blog post exist, and really do make it so much easier to make positive changes!
