The Green Brother is Watching You

Science is almost unanimous in the conclusion that humans are using natural resources at a pace too quickly to be sustainable. This makes many people feel overwhelmed and guilty, as all of us in developed countries most likely lead a lifestyle incompatible with long-term sustainability. But is there a way to measure how sustainable your life is? As you might have guessed from the past posts, there's an app for that! In fact, there are many apps that enable the user to track this and engage him/her in climate action.

Our first example is Rensti, a Danish startup that developed Climaider, a "personal climate helper" that will soon introduce a feature calculating your emissions and offering a personalized offsetting subscription through carbon credits. These credits are based on projects in developing countries, such as planting trees in Kenya and Tanzania. Climaider already offers offsetting subscriptions based on the emissions by an average citizen in Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK, China and USA. For instance, Climaider states that the subscription for an average Dane would cost a little over 10€ per month. Finally, they also provide carbon-reducing tips for a more sustainable life. Following the advice by a student consultant team from Copenhagen, they might soon expand to the Netherlands as well.

Another example is For Good, a mobile app that calculates your total CO2 footprint from traveling, food and energy consumption. For food and energy you need to answer some questions or input meter readings yourself, while for travel the app tracks your movement automatically. In all 3 areas you can also find tips on how to reduce your footprint. The "Wall", or home page, of the app displays the number of planets needed if everyone lead your lifestyle and sums up your weekly emissions.

After researching these different methods to have your sustainability at your fingertips, I do have some doubts about their usefulness. Despite for sure being quite user friendly, do we really want yet another app taking up even more time through the required data input? And more importantly, another app that tracks our every move and activity (when we let it)?

However, I am also convinced that these and similar apps are of great use if for, say, a month, you track your activities and get an overview of your emissions, so that you can take action in a more informed way. Climaider's approach to also offset your emissions directly represents a very convenient innovation because not only do you find out what your footprint is, but you know your money serves a good cause be sequestering carbon. Finally, if you choose to go with the subscription for a typical citizen of your country, then you really do not give away much private information!