Of all the colours representing one social movement or the other, green is one of the most popular.
Thinking green and living with an environmental consciousness is the “in” thing to do these days, and with Earth Day a month away, here are four apps to help your Windows Phone join the eco-movement.
Battery Saver
Maximising your phone’s battery life means not having to charge it as often, which in turn saves electricity and benefits the environment.
Battery Saver (picture left) does nothing new that Microsoft's Windows Phone can’t already do natively — a great battery saver function is already built in — but it does bring all the power management functions into one unified interface.
It also lets you pin shortcuts to specific power-sapping features like Bluetooth or WiFi to the home screen so you can jump straight in and turn them off whenever necessary.
There’s also a handy reminder feature with fully customisable text up to 30 characters, so you can for example remind yourself to switch off the WiFi at a certain time.
Carbon Footprint Calculator
How much of an impact are you making on our planet?
As we go about our daily lives, we’re usually too busy to keep thinking about our CO2 emissions.
The Carbon Footprint Calculator can help you with that.
The app lets users input the amount of electricity, natural gas, heating oil, propane and transportation you consume annually, and roughly estimates your carbon footprint for you.
If the user cannot provide the exact figures – such as his/her household’s total kilowatt-hours of electricity use per year – the app can help generate an estimate based on you home size:
Single family, a town house, or an apartment.
And if you’re feeling bad about all those carbon you’re contributing to the atmosphere, the app will even tell you how many trees you need to plant to offset your emissions.
Plastic Analyzer
A piece of plastic by any other name…
Well, yes, it’s still a piece of plastic, but there are a variety of plastics used in various products.
To find out what type of plastic the bottle you’re holding is made of, and what it can be recycled into, you need Plastic Analyzer.
Plastics usually have an identification code numbered 1 to 7, and the app can tell you the properties of a particular type of plastic once you enter its code.
For instance, Polyethylene terephthalate is clear, tough, and can act as a barrier to gas and moisture. It is most commonly found in water bottles and jam jars, and can be recycled into tote bags and carpets.
This app must have been written by plastic nerds!
(Nerds who love plastic, not nerds made of plastic)
Crafting a Green World Feed Reader
“Gasp! How dare you introduce a feed reader app?”
Chill out, guys.
This app is just badly named.
Crafting a Green World Feed Reader is a proper app with well-designed sections and options for personalisation.
The app pulls in content from the Website of the same name, which offers ideas for creative reuse of old items and eco-friendly art supplies and tutorials.
You can filter posts by categories, share interesting articles to your social networks, and mark your favourite stories for later reference.
However, there seems to be no way to sync your favourites with your computer.
Got an old scarf lying around?
Download the app and get creative!
Living sustainably, after all, is more than just buying eco-friendly products.
It’s also about recycling and reusing without unnecessary consumption.
Source: e27
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