Sometimes we need a little extra help to make our lives more sustainable – that’s where apps can come in handy. Below are five apps that can help lower your carbon footprint and do just a little bit better for the environment!

Kitche

Kitche’s focus is food waste. You never really realise how much food you’re throwing out until you start logging it.

On Kitche, you log all the food you own, and then mark it as eaten or tossed when it’s gone. It’s that simple! When you shop, you can scan your receipt to add the new ingredients instead of typing them up manually. If you log the expiration dates, the app will even notify you when your ingredients are going out of date and need to get eaten.

Then, at the end of the week, Kitche will tally up the food you’ve thrown out (and their approximate prices) to show you just how much food waste you’re producing, and how much money you’re losing in the process.

You never know what kind of habits you have until you see them first hand, and that’s what Kitche is great for: showing you exactly what you’re doing and how you can improve. They also have a bonus feature of providing recipes for the ingredients you already have in your kitchen!

Download: App Store | Play Store

Ecosia

You might have heard of Ecosia already! Ecosia is a search engine that you can download as an app. Instead of using your generic internet application that comes with the phone, or whatever privacy-ignoring search engine you’ve devoted your life (and personal details) to, download the Ecosia app.

Ecosia is privacy friendly and keeps all your searches anonymous – but its real selling point is that it plants trees for every search you make!

Basically, search ads generate income. That income goes straight into planting trees, with over 149 million planted so far. Ecosia’s servers run entirely on solar power, and by planting trees with its profits, every search with Ecosia removes about 0.5kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. According to their website, if Ecosia were as big as Google, it could absorb 15% of all global CO2 emissions.

Download: App Store | Play Store

Too Good To Go

Too Good To Go is here to change how much food is wasted by companies.

At the end of each day, stores and restaurants regularly throw out food that’s perfectly edible. With the app, you can see all these places and purchase one of their “Magic Bags” (usually £3-4) to pick up. Magic Bags are filled with their leftover food and will have a random assortment each time.

The only catch is that you won’t know exactly what you’ll be getting!

Download: App Store | Play Store

Ailuna

The Ailuna app aims to dare you to make small but meaningful changes for a set period of time.

Each week, you’re presented with a list of dares – go meat free, take only 5-minute showers, turn the lights off every time you leave a room – that take around a week to complete. The goal is to leave you with habitual lifestyle changes.

When you find one you want to try, just accept the dare! It’ll walk you through all the steps and check-in with you along the way. You can also do group dares with your friends on the app and read through tips to do even better along the way.

After completing your dare, move onto the next and build your sustainable habits!

Download: App Store | Play Store

Moves

Christ Church is partnered with the Moves app in an effort to get you healthy and moving – but it’s also a great opportunity to start trading out car journeys for walking. The app uses walking data from activity trackers to register how many steps you’re taking each day. The more steps you take, the more points you earn – and you can use them to claim plenty of prizes, from hot drinks and sweets to gym passes and prize draws!

Set yourself a prize as a goal, or join in on a group challenge, and start walking more often in order to reach it! Transport is a massive cause of CO2 emissions, so try out the Moves app to lower yours and win some prizes along the way!

Download: App Store | Play Store

Do you have a favourite app to help you reach your sustainability goals? Let us know what we’re missing out on!


By Bethany Climpson, Sustainability Engagement Assistant