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Another Earth Day has come around, and on the heels of the latest IPCC report, it’s hard to not feel discouraged about what we can do as individuals to make a difference in the climate crisis. It’s so easy to play the blame game and point our fingers at governments, organisations and brands that seem to carry on, business as usual, not knowing how to tackle climate change as individuals..
But what good does that do?!
Because we bang the tech for good drum, we wanted to dig in and understand the problem, to see how technology could support a solution.
So that’s exactly what we did! Our Bridging The Gap report helped shed some light on consumers’ attitudes towards sustainability. The results from our report gave us a better understanding about the intention-action gap and why it exists. We saw that 17.6 million Brits are falling into it. That’s ⅓ of consumers wanting to live more sustainably, but aren’t quite managing too.
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We had identified that a substantial gap existed, the next step was to delve further to see how technology might assist in bridging that gap. Through that survey we we able to glean three main reasons why consumers are falling short with their green intentions. Those reasons are:
Motivation
Convenience
Cost
The results from that report set us on a trajectory to understand the problem further and that is how our ‘Igniting Change’ podcast was born! In the podcast, we were keen to discover how we, as humans, can reduce our impact on the planet with insights from psychologists, brands, sustainability experts, climate scientists, government and charitable organisations.
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What we learned from our guest speakers was absolutely invaluable. They shared insights that all of us could take away and make significant change with. From behaviour change, leveraging technology to help the natural world, all the way to “trolling for good”, we wrapped the first Season with a better understanding of what could be/what needed to be done for individuals to adopt new sustainable habits.
Don’t worry if you missed it!
You can listen to Season 1 here:
The most powerful takeaway is that each and every one of us has the capacity to generate real change with minor tweaks to our day-to-day routine. There is some really fantastic tech out there to support us in our fight against the climate crisis, so we wanted to spotlight some rad apps and platforms kicking ass and saving the world.
Yayzy
Be planet proud with Yayzy
You can easily measure your carbon footprint, and offset your impact from the app to fight climate change. You can link Yayzy to your bank account to automatically calculate the carbon footprint of your purchases. The connection is safe, secure & encrypted with bank level security. Get an itemised overview of how your spending influences your carbon footprint and shift to low carbon options so you have autonomy to reduce what you can.
Yoyu Tech
Get cleaner power, by the hour
Energy is all around us. Some is clean (from sun and wind) and some is dirty, from fossil fuels. Yoyu’s forecast shows you when it is clean, and when it’s not… It’s that simple. The rest is up to you! With this app you can,
Get the forecast
Plan your charging, laundry or baking (anything electric!)
Save carbon at home (up to 50% per action)
Put fossil fuels out of business
As more of us can shift what time we use electricity, we show our collective demand for more renewable power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. null
ForestNation
Because our survival on earth depends on positive climate action
The mission at Forest Nation is to reforest Mother Earth and to motivate you to grow and plant your own trees. They do this by creating products and services that help you achieve your own goals, which results in more trees being brought to life.
You plant, they plant
With every item purchased and action taken on their website, they plant trees in an area hit hard by deforestation and industrial agriculture. Through this program, they focus on generating sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. Their hope is to stimulate local economies; develop leadership roles for women; and create a brighter outlook for future generations.
OLIO
Let’s not waste our wonderful world
OLIO connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. Excitingly, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.
At OLIO they believe that small actions can lead to big change. Collectively – one rescued cupcake, carrot or bottle of lotion at a time – can build a more sustainable future where our most precious resources are shared, not thrown away.
“A third of the food we produce globally is thrown away, and in the UK households are responsible for over half of all food waste. The average family throws away £700 worth of food each year. That adds up to £12.5 billion… £12.5 billion that is going straight to landfill!” null
Litterati
Empowering people to create a cleaner planet by turning information into actionable insight
Litterati are on a mission to create a litter free world! They do this by capturing litter through geo-tagged photos makes the problem measurable. What was previously impossible to track now has visibility and patterns begin to emerge amongst what lies on our streets, playgrounds, and beaches. The more clear the data on the problem becomes, the more they are able to create effective solutions.
There you have it! Those apps are really excellent for helping individuals cultivate change – I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! We all have the power to save the planet at an incredibly exciting time, those tools are right at our fingertips.
So let’s use them!
And shout me a holla if you end up downloading a few and want to chat all things tech for good!
Our next ‘Tech ForGood Talks’ is right around the corner on 26/4 and will delve into how tech can save the planet. We cannot wait to hear from our expert panel of climate warriors and have some great conversations on Tuesday 3 – 4BST.
Don’t miss out and sign-up below:
Published on 22 April 2022, last updated on 15 March 2023
