top Apps That Make Sustainable Living Easier 2024
As climate anxiety grows, more and more consumers are taking direct action by making adjustments to the way that they live. Whether it’s through making low-waste swaps or actively choosing to invest in eco-friendly technology, the everyday consumer is now more conscious of the impact that their buying power can have.
One of the most helpful tools in this shift has been technology. With the development of apps that can help us with anything from reducing food waste to tracking our carbon emissions, living more sustainably is truly a simple touch or scroll away.
Last year, I covered 8 Sustainable Living Apps but since then, the market has grown exponentially. Here are 5 new apps that make sustainable living easier.
1. 30 Wears
Because this is primarily a sustainable fashion blog, let’s start with this sector. Everyone knows that the most sustainable thing to do in terms of fashion is to rewear your clothes.
Rather than purchasing new items, you can decrease the negative environmental impact of the fashion industry by extending the lifespan of your existing garments. It’s thought that on average, it takes 30 wears of a piece of clothing to work off its emissions from manufacturing.
This app was inspired by Olivia Firth’s 30 wears campaign a few years back and takes monitoring garment use to a new dimension. Gone are the days of manual tracking; there’s an app for that now!
30Wears is a relatively simple app that makes digital tracking a breeze. You simply take photos of your clothes, upload them, and tag them every time you wear them. This community-driven app also offers some fun fashion facts to make the process educational.
Additionally, Wear Me 30 Times is a garment tracking app created by Maakola in conjunction with Genuine Way. The premise is similar but users can only upload garments from specific partner catalogs. While I think this app is currently extremely limited in functionality and has a clear bias towards working with specific brands, it could be an interesting app to keep on your radar as they expand their partnership program.
2. Ailuna
Habits are at the core of everything we do. It’s thought that 40% of our daily actions are run by habits alone so if we can begin to shift them to support more sustainable living patterns, then we create bigger, and more longer-lasting impact.
Ailuna is an app backed by behavioral science that helps you develop habits that benefit both you and the planet. It encourages you to set green goals by embracing zero waste and low carbon habits so you can track your positive impact as you go. Each habit is designed as a dare that lasts a week in length and new dares are released every month. If you’re a fan of games, tracking, and challenges, this app is a fun and interactive way to engage small sustainable actions that accumulate to make large differences.
3. JouleBug
This app is similar to Ailuna in that it encourages individuals to take small daily actions for long-term impact. This app delivers practical tips and strategies for reducing your environmental footprint and allows users to participate in fun activities and challenges to enforce a more sustainable way of living. The best thing about this app is that it encourages corporations and organizations to sign up and allows employers to build team morale while making a positive environmental impact.
4. My Plastic Diary
I recently participated in Plastic Free July for the first time and let me tell you, one of the hardest parts was keeping track of all the plastic that I inadvertently used. My Plastic Diary app helps you record single-use plastic consumption and shows you the breakdown of the plastics that are present in your daily life. This app then takes things one step further and offers helpful tips for reducing your reliance on plastic, and gives you rewards for your progress. If you respond well to positive reinforcement, this app is one to check out!
5. Oroeco
In order to ensure that we’re actually living more sustainably, we need to be able to measure the actions that we’re taking. Oroeco does just that. Oroeco is one of the longest-standing carbon footprint trackers on the market. It covers multiple life activities (eating, living, transportation, just to name a few) and allows you to better understand your lifestyle’s environmental impact.
Have you ever used any of these apps? Do you use technology to help you reach your sustainable living goals? Please share your thoughts down below!
