Are you great at making environmentally responsible decisions in your everyday life but would love to see what difference you are making in a tangible way? Or do you need something to help guide you to make more sustainable choices? Either way, here’s an app to watch out for. . .
The TODAY app is currently under development and will essentially be a tool to provide information and inspiration to users on how they can make the right choices on a day to day basis that are kind to the environment and can help make a difference.
A big part of the app will be posing challenges relating to all areas of our life, broken down into the following sections: food, drinks, home, lifestyle, shopping, technology, transport and work.
As an example the type of challenges you might find in the drinks section are:
- Buy organic and fair trade coffee. Look for shade-grown coffee at über trendy joints. If you listen carefully, this coffee can hum the songs of Gaia.
- Avoid coffee giants! These are the doofuses who de-forest, erode, and poison the soils of plantations. Find café’s who source their coffee beans from small, private farms.
- Bring your own coffee cup! Want to avoid plastic and unnecessary landfill? Buy a keep cup and loudly share with coffee shop patrons that you are the solution!
- Avoid stirring sticks. A tree lost its life and a hole in the ground and will fill faster because someone needs to stir in their sugar for 5 seconds. Ask to borrow a metal spoon from the cafe.
- And don’t even think about buying Kobi Luwak coffee – brewed using beans that were eaten and poo’d out by a poor, trapped tree animal – if you care for animal welfare.
The app will then give you tangible results of how carrying out these challenges may be helping our environment – for example:
By refusing milk and the disposable cup next time you get a coffee, you can save up to $1 every time you get your fix. Not to mention the reduced footprint in the production of the cups, lids and dairy. If you can save a cup a day with reusables for one year, you’ll save about 40.5 kg of CO2, 91L of water, and 2.6kg of solid waste. Plus, when we look at getting milk in your jar we can save around 0.25 kg of CO2, 255L of water each time.
In relation to other areas (sections), you can expect to learn about:
- How much clean air you create from walking to work.
- How much money you save buying responsibly.
- How much water you save with the clothes and shoes you buy.
- How much natural land you conserve by eating sustainably.
The TODAY app will also feature a rewards system, whereby users will be offered discounts at participating businesses that align themselves with TODAY’s values.
The app is now finished and in the last stages of preparation and due to launch at the end of September. Watch this space for a review soon.
In the meantime, click here for some ideas on how to think sustainably or visit the TODAY website to take up a challenge!