Sustainability app – You Choose

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Welcome to Choosesustainable.org, a blog where we explore ways of living sustainably.

This month I would like to share the app that I developed. About a year ago, I started thinking about what more could be done to raise awareness of the link between the destruction of the environment and the products we use every day. I thought of developing an app that could provide interested users with quick information, suggestions, product ratings, and links on the topic. After doing a lot of research and learning a lot, I have finally an initial working version of the app that I would like to make available for download. The app (android) is available for download on Google Play, it can be downloaded from the side bar of the page.

The name of the app is YouChoose. The name and the logo, the Pythagorean Y, place an emphasis on the power of individual choices. The narrow branch on the right is the hard path that leads to a better future, the large branch on the left is the easy path that ultimately leads to destruction.

At the moment the app comprises three main sections: The Did you know? section contains an overview of the most pressing sustainability issues and provides links to reputable web sites for people who wants to know more. A Searchable database lists about 200 commonly used products. Each product has an environmental impact rating (High, Medium, Low), a brief explanation for the rating, and suggested sustainable alternatives. I think this is important because sometimes we think we have no alternatives, but in reality, it is not always the case. A Take Action section provides practical tips in many areas of our everyday lives: Food, Home and Garden, Beauty and Fashion, Travel. The section gives quick lists of sustainable and unsustainable products and practices in addition to links to complete lists from other web sites.

Why do I think this app can be useful

First of all, the information provided in the app is generally available on the internet, however it takes a lot of time and dedication to browse web sites looking for specific information about which products and practices are sustainable. In other words, because companies put a lot of efforts into hiding the harmful consequences of their products on the planet, it takes a conscious act of the will to find which products cause environmental damage, and not everybody has the time or the dedication to do that.

To provide a practical example, if we go to a furniture store to buy fancy furniture for our home, we don’t think of researching which woods are sustainably harvested before we go. When we are at the store and we see beautiful furniture made of exotic wood it would be nice to have that information readily available on the app so we can quickly check if Brazilian cherry, to mention one, is an endangered tree and we can also ask appropriate questions about the provenance and certifications of the wood. I wish I had this app available a few years ago when I went to buy a dining set at a furniture store. I asked the shop assistant about the provenance of their wood, but she couldn’t tell me. If I had the app at that time, I could have checked the sustainability of that specific type of wood. Similarly, at a restaurant or grocery store, we can quickly check the sustainability of the fish on the menu using links provided in the app. I think making this information readily available can help people to become more conscious about our climate and environmental footprint.

Take Action Section: Food

The first item in the “Take Action” section of the App is about our food habits. It is straightforward to say that eating less meat is probably the single most important step we can take to reduce our carbon footprint and help to stop deforestation. The app provides links to a few websites with meatless recipes. We can all start with one day of the week and add more days as we become more comfortable with more foods and recipes. This was the first step I took myself many years ago and I must say I never looked back. It is amazing to see how reducing meat will inspire you to try new varieties of foods and new recipes. You can check out the recipe category in this blog and hopefully we’ll have more contributions on this topic. The food section of the App also provides lists of the least and most sustainable fish and vegetables. The second fundamental step we can take to stop deforestation is to reduce our involuntary dependence on palm oil. On this front it is fundamental to read the ingredients and simply refuse to place in your shopping cart items that contain palm oil. Easy enough right? The reality is far from easy; I have started on this arduous path and hope to have more posts on this topic as we go, detailing the obstacles found and offering alternative solutions. For those who would like to embark on this journey, the app provides initial help, with a link that explains the relevance of the issue, lists of foods where palm oil is found, and alternatives. Perhaps this blog could become an aggregation point where we can initiate concerted actions to call on food producers.

Take Action Section: Home and Garden

In the home and garden section there is plenty of information, tips, and links to sustainable gardening practices including how to easily reduce the amount of lawn without digging and quick lists of easy native plants. A link to the Xerces Society provides information on garden products to avoid so it can be easily accessed when we are in the store choosing which products to buy. Although I do understand that occasionally we may have no choice, too many times home improvement stores have become chemical depots where we can buy all sort of poisons to kill plants and animals for no real reason. The environmental consequences of these products are far reaching, hopefully the app can provide information and alternatives. There are also lists of easy native plants for those who would like to try native gardening. In future posts I plan to provide detailed accounts of my attempts at more sustainable garden practices and look forward to receiving many contributions on this topic as well.

The app doesn’t limit to gardening practices, it also provides a quick list of unsustainable woods in case we need to buy furniture for the home, and a link to the Rainforest Relief complete list of woods to avoid. The home and garden section also contains a list of ingredients found in cleaning products and laundry detergents that hide the presence of palm oil and provides alternative ways of making your own dish soap. This is a difficult topic that will be addressed more in this blog.

Take Action Section: Beauty and Fashion

I must confess I knew very little about the impact of the beauty and fashion industry on the environment and was horrified when I found out that some of the products present in my bathroom cabinets contained palm oil and other chemicals. My first step in this department was to eliminate leather items from my purchases as much as I could. I found some great links to web sites that provide very good information on the topic, especially on which fabrics are more sustainable and I linked them to the app. On the beauty topic the app addresses two ways in which our habits are unsustainable: the use of palm oil and other chemicals in beauty products and the use of plastic bottles and packaging. A list of top ingredients to avoid when purchasing beauty products is provided for easy reference so that it can be easily consulted when inside a store. I addition there are some ideas on how to reduce plastic by using zero waste soap bars to make your own liquid soap instead of buying bottled products.

Take Action Section: Travel and Hobbies

Finally, the travel and hobbies section of the app helps us to understand the environmental impact of our travel with links to information and lists of activities and products that are contributing to deforestation and extinction of species. I hope that increased awareness of the issues will make us think twice about engaging in purchases or entertainments that are directly responsible for much destruction and suffering.

I hope this overview of the app arouse your curiosity enough that you will want to try it. I value feedback and collaborations. If you think that the app is useful, and you would like to contribute to it please let me know. Also, if you find useful information on the websites linked and approve of the work carried by the organizations please consider getting involved: Wait no longer Earth needs you!!