4 replies to this topic

[vickieheully]

I heard of a smartphone app today called GoodGuide. It helps you choose the most earth-friendly products where you shop. You can scan the products barcode with your phone cam, and GoodGuide will show you a rating for that product based on health, environment, and social responsibilty.

I'm sorry if that sounded like an advertisement :-). Has anyone here used this app? Is it any good? The website for it said the ratings are backed up by scientific studies as well as user reviews.

I think this could be a helpful tool to not only choose the best products overall, but to find out which products to avoid.

[Hayden]

Thanks for posting this.

I have not tried it but someone voted 5 stars here:
http://www.altenergy...odguide-mobile/
(Add your rating/comments there if you do give it a try)

Also, if you know of other good green smartphone apps feel free to add links to them in our downloads section.

There lots of useful things here at AltEnergyShift, thankfully discussions like this can help others find them.

[DevilKid]

Hmm. This app does sound really good. It would help people like me to find out which products are eco-friendly and which aren't. However, I am not sure if it is available on Android yet as that is the software that my smartphone runs on. But, all in all a great app!

[jasserEnv]

I think that apps like this are an important part of using our purchasing power to change the way retailers source their products. If consumers can go into a store and quickly look up a product to see how sustainable it is, it is more likely that they may tell store owners their opinions on the product. It is also more likely that they will be able to seek out more sustainable alternatives right there instead of resigning themselves to making the purchase because they have no idea where else to find an equivalent product. I don't know all the criteria used but you could conceivably target sustainability from social, environmental and labour views with such an app.

[greenking]

Good Guide is great! Also try Carbon Tracker. It uses GPS to calculate your carbon footprint based on how much your travel. You can chart your carbon emission changes by month and set goals to decrease them. Cool!