GoGreen: Carbon Tracker
It’s all good and well trying to ‘guesstimate’ your carbon footprint, but without knowing where it stems from, you won’t know how to reduce it. Enter GoGreen: Carbon Tracker. This nifty app accurately monitors your carbon footprint by analysing data from your household utility bills. The app is able to track your monthly consumption of electricity, water and natural gas, measure your driving emissions and identify trends in your usage patterns. It also compares your consumption to those around you and awards and deducts ‘energy points’ depending on your carbon dioxide emissions – providing incentive for users to be more environmentally friendly in their daily activities and lifestyle decisions.
SunStream Pro Solar Panel and Power Bank combo
Not only is this solar-charged power bank convenient for staying connected in remote locations, but it’s good for the environment too. The device charges to one full amp by being left in the sun and is suitable for high-demand tech such as tablets, smartphones and GPS devices. Portable, waterproof and shatter-proof, the SunStream Pro Solar Panel and Power Bank combo ensures you will have a fully charged phone in less than two hours. With its lightweight design and built-in LED torch, it’s easy to carry around.
GoodGuide
Ethical shopping just got a whole lot easier with the GoodGuide app. By scanning a product’s barcode, the app reveals scientific data and research regarding the item’s ‘green’ credentials and provides a rating from 0-10. The higher the rating, the better the product from a health perspective. You can find out the nutritional value of your favourite food products or the potential health hazards and chemical ingredients in the personal-care and household items you swear by. GoodGuide will provide greener alternatives for your daily purchases and, if you want to get clued up before heading to the store, you can search for and browse a range of brands and companies to help you make informed consumer purchasing decisions.
DropDrop
South Africa’s water scarcity woes are still ongoing and can only be reduced through the co-operation and commitment of all citizens to be mindful of their water consumption. During the height of the crisis, students of the University of Cape Town developed DropDrop, an app that helps users track their daily water usage, predict monthly bills, and learn new methods for conserving water. DropDrop reads your municipality’s external water meter and provides information that will aid you in optimising your water usage.
Kill A Watt
Keep tabs on how much electricity your appliances are using with the Kill A Watt digital watt meter. Simply plug the device into a wall socket and plug any appliance (up to 2 000W) into the watt meter to gage the current voltage, accumulated electricity (total kW hours) and current electricity consumption (watts being used) of the appliance you want to assess. Advanced functions on the meter can also calculate the electricity cost of using an appliance while the device’s display mode indicates various factors such as time/price or time/voltage and minimum and the maximum power consumed.
