A Dozen Great Sustainability Apps

Let’s face it, being ecofriendly can be hard work. Often, the sustainable choice requires more time and effort to make the planet a little greener. Enter: environmentally friendly apps, which make those decisions much easier. Suddenly, the thought of transitioning to zero waste or only public transport seems less daunting when all the solutions you may need are sitting in your pocket. We decided to round up some apps for each of eight categories of sustainability.

The following information is provided as information for our users and does not constitute an endorsement of any product, service or individual by Socket or the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

Each of these applications is free and available on both Android and iOS systems.

Design/Build

USGBC Explore

Here at the Department of General Services, we spend a lot of time thinking about green buildings. Perhaps you have heard of LEED® certification? It is a sustainable building standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council. In Tennessee, there are more than 800 LEED® buildings. The Department of General Services has built nearly 30 LEED® certified buildings and manages almost all of those. The USGBC explore app puts that information in your pocket, creating a map of LEED® buildings and individual scorecards for each project. Save this one on your phone to read more about the buildings you see every day and maybe even impress your friends with your knowledge, too.

Energy

MyEarth

No matter what we do, it is difficult to understand the impact of our actions or whether our sustainable choices make a difference. MyEarth makes it easy to track your carbon savings and watch each little decision affect your total carbon output. The easy diary format tracks daily progress in electricity, recycling, travel food, and usage to add up your carbon savings. Reminders that simply taking the stairs or unplugging chargers can help protect the planet will re-motivate your sustainability journey and set you up for success.

Food

HowGood

The HowGood food app searches your food through a database of over 200,000 items to see if the product meets growing, processing, and company conduct standards. HowGood helps you ensures your food is as good for the planet as it is for you.

PickTN

Interested in what foods are in season? Eating local produce reduces greenhouse gas emissions and food waste. The PickTN app helps you find the farms, farmers markets, and food closest to you. Not big on cooking? The app lists restaurants statewide committed to purchasing local.

Greenspace

iNaturalist

Ah yes, the great outdoors. Old school nature purists may disagree but spending time outside may be improved by bringing along your phone. iNaturalist allows us to be curious again, exploring the outdoors, and learning which critters share the earth with us. By connecting you with a community of scientists and researchers, iNaturalist identifies native plant and animal species, transforming a walk outside into a certified jungle safari. Better yet, by using iNaturalist while out and about, you contribute to a network for research data for scientists who are working hard to protect our wildlife and ecosystems. Learning more about nature while protecting it? Don’t mind if we do.

NashGR

If you are interested in exploring Nashville’s green spaces, this is the app for you. NashGR maps the city’s greenways, including them in your transportation or recreation route, while alerting you to nearby points of interest from live music to outdoor fun.

Mobility

Transit

Ever seen purple buses driving down the street? Well, they are Nashville’s WeGo buses and using them is a breeze thanks to the Transit app. An official recommendation from WeGo, this app provides real time data to plan trips, plot routes, and track buses for easy navigation around Nashville. Switching from the comfort and ease of cars to public transportation can seem daunting, but Transit adapts to your lifestyle. Not totally convinced yet? Don’t worry, it works with your rideshare apps too.

PlugShare

This real time Electric Vehicle and Tesla charging station map is the most accurate and complete Electric Vehicle charging app worldwide. Users can contribute station reviews and photos helping other drivers make the most informed charging decisions. Additional filters that restrict the stations to those that are compatible with your Electric Vehicle or specific station type further improve PlugShare’s convenience. Nashville has the most charging stations of any city in Tennessee; it is time to start using them.

Waste

Waste Wizard

We were going to look for some cool apps that mitigate waste and promote our favorite mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but then we realized, Metro Nashville already has the best resource available: Waste Wizard! We heard your complaints, and we know it too; Nashville’s recycling rules can get a little confusing (curb-side vs drop off? Rinse vs toss?). The Waste Wizard tool eliminates any confusion you may have, simply enter the item in question into the search bar and we will let you know what you need to do. There is even a game to learn best sorting practices. Nashville will need your help to reach its 2050 Zero Waste target and the Wizard will make it much easier.

Water

Tap

Committing to reusable water bottles is impossible without a place to fill them up. Think of Tap app as your water search engine. The app provides access to a network of 35,000 Refill Stations in over 7,000 cities, including Nashville. Simply set your water preferences and Tap will locate and direct you to the nearest station. This convenient, cost-effective, and ecofriendly solution ensures you will never go thirsty exploring Nashville.

DropCountr

DropCountr connects you to your water utility through a neat water usage portal. After installing a meter to read your water usage, the app tracks how much your household uses by the day, month, or year. On average, DropCountr users save 9% in monthly water use. We are lucky to pay so little for water in Nashville, and our bills may not properly reflect the value of the water we actually use. DropCountr’s visualization portal will change the way you think about water in your home.

Wellness

EWG's Healthy Living

What we use to wash away our daily grime may be dirtier than we think. Environmental Working Group leads industry research on toxic ingredients and pollutants in our daily environment, and their healthy living app makes it easy to make safe choices on everything from shampoo to sunscreen. Their system rates everything on an easy 1-10 scale and provides verified alternatives if you wish to switch your products. Careful! It is easy to scan and rate every product you own upon downloading…not everything is as clean as it says it is.

There you have it, eleven apps that make loving the planet just a little easier. Go forth and download, and hopefully reduce some carbon along the way. Now that you’re out of excuses, what’s stopping you from saving the planet?