Climate Local Now: Seven Apps for Sustainable Living
by Brianne Briggmann
Are you using your smartphone to reduce your carbon footprint?
If not, it’s time to take out your device and open up the App Store. There are so many apps out there to help you lower your footprint by acting locally or engaging globally. With a little help from your smart device, you can easily do your part to get involved in climate action and promote a regenerative future.
East End local or otherwise, you can partake in climate solutions with these seven apps. From revolutionizing fashion choices to fighting food waste and even planting trees, these apps will empower you to make a positive impact on our planet while building a stronger community.
1. Too Good to Go
Hello takeout enthusiasts! Too Good to Go is working to put an end to restaurant food waste. This app connects users with local restaurants, bakeries, and cafes that have surplus food at the end of the day. Users can purchase these unsold items at a discounted price, ensuring that perfectly good food ends up on your plate and not in the trash. Genius, right? Reduce food waste, eat on a budget, and support local business: it’s a win-win-win.
2. Treecard
Lace up your sneakers and get moving with Treecard, an app powered by the tree-planting search engine Ecosia (bonus: green your searches by adding this browser extension and downloading their app as well!) Treecard combines sustainability with exercise. For each 10,000 steps you take, Treecard plants a tree where it’s needed most. This app adds even more incentive to walk as you contribute not only to your personal health, but the health of the planet through reforestation efforts. Download this app and start letting your steps make a positive impact!
3. Olio
While Olio might not be buzzing yet on the East End of Long Island, we can change that together! This fantastic app aims to reduce food waste and foster a greater sense of community in locales. With Olio, you can share excess food or other items with your neighbors instead of letting them go to waste. By connecting and supporting each other, we create a more sustainable, resourceful, and resilient local community. Spread the word and inspire your neighbors to log onto Olio!
4. Climate Action Now
If you’re passionate about environmental policy and making a global impact, the Climate Action Now app is your digital ally. Stay informed, engage in advocacy efforts, and raise your voice for meaningful change. Through small daily actions that take less than five minutes, you can easily push for policies that address climate change and protect our planet—all from your device! The app includes outreach to national, state, and local representatives so you can make your voice heard where it matters most.
5. ThredUp
While this app doesn’t work to strengthen your local community, it is undoubtedly leading the pack when it comes to sustainable apps. ThredUp is an online thrift store that has personally rescued me from the clutches of fast fashion. This app is a treasure trove of second-hand clothing options that not only help you express your unique style on a budget, but also reduce textile waste and minimize the intensive resource use of newly made clothing. Easily participate in the circular economy by shopping sustainably and giving pre-loved clothes a fabulous new lease on life.
6. Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a social networking app that connects neighbors and promotes community engagement. While its primary purpose is fostering local connections, it indirectly supports sustainable living too! Through Nextdoor, neighbors can share resources, recommend eco-friendly businesses, coordinate carpooling and ride-sharing, and organize initiatives like community gardening and neighborhood cleanups. The app is widely used even on the East End and is a useful way to connect with your neighborhood, for sustainability purposes and otherwise.
7. Good On You
Like ThredUp, the Good On You app is here to revolutionize your shopping experience. Users rate fashion brands on their ethics and sustainability practices so you can make informed choices about what you wear when you buy new. Join the fashion revolution and support brands that align with your values!
From revamping your fashion choices to fighting food waste, planting trees, advocating for meaningful policies, and simply connecting with your neighbors, these apps bring sustainability right to your fingertips. Let’s use our phones as a force for good, empowering local communities and global initiatives alike! Grab your smartphone, join the movement, and let’s create a regenerative future together.
Brianne Briggmann is a Mattituck native and SUNY Geneseo alumna with a Bachelors in English and a driving passion for sustainability. Her goal is to use words and writings to inspire change, evoke action, and harvest community in the environmental space.
Climate Local Now is a partnership between the East End Beacon and The Carbon Crew Project, whose mission is to inspire local solutions to reverse global warming. | carboncrewproject.org
