The Best Apps to Help You Go Green at Home

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These days, there’s an app for pretty much everything. Whether you need help choosing your outfit or killing two minutes while you wait in a line, there’s an app that has a solution.

Adopting eco-friendly habits is no exception – there are a slew of apps to help you embrace a sustainable lifestyle. In fact, there are so many options that navigating the eco-friendly app forest can become a little overwhelming.

So, we decided to wrangle seven of our favorite apps that help you go green at home. Check them out!

Virtual Water

If you take a quick look in your fridge, you’ll probably see things like vegetables, meat, eggs and other edible items.

What you won’t see is the surprisingly large amount of water that’s required to produce all of that food.

For example, did you know that it requires 587 gallons of water to create 20 oz. of chicken?

Virtual Water is a digital companion that can help you become more conscious about the water requirements of your diet so that you can make an effort to reduce your ecological footprint.

Price: $1.99
Available for: iPhone

SolarChecker

We’ve explained some of the tax incentives for installing solar panels before, and this free app is a handy tool if you’re considering this eco-friendly home improvement.

The app measures the amount of solar radiation in your current location, and then calculates the ROI of installing solar panels on your home.

So, if you’ve been tossing around the idea of going solar, give this app a download and see if it makes sense!

Price: Free
Available for: iOS

BrightNest

The BrightNest app is filled with tips and tricks to help you go green around the house.

When you sign up, you can select topics that interest you (e.g. saving money, cleaning, going green).

If you select “green,” BrightNest will send you bite-sized, big-impact tips each week, such as easy ways to conserve water and recipes for eco-friendly cleaning products.

The app also includes plenty of fun tricks, such as upcycling old tea bags and using lemons around the house.

Price: Free
Available for: iPhone

Green Outlet

Electric appliances are one of the largest sources of energy usage in the home (looking at you, Mr. Water Heater), but it can be difficult to determine exactly how much each appliance really uses.

Green Outlet solves this problem by asking you what appliances you own and how often you use each one.

Then, the app breaks down the usage of each appliance (so you can finally see exactly how much your kid’s lengthy Playstation sessions are costing you).

Since this app is so personalized, we expect people will have a variety of experiences with it. If you’ve used Green Outlet, let us know what you think of it in the comments!

Price: $0.99
Available for: iPhone

Vine.com

Even if you want to buy products that are good for the environment, it can be a little tricky to tell if a product is truly “green” or just being marketed as such when you’re shopping.

The Vine online storefront helps take some guesswork out of the buying experience by carefully vetting everything they sell.

Each product must meet a number of standards (such as being sustainably produced and energy efficient) before Vine will sell it.

Plus, the app totes a sleek design and intuitive interface, so you can make purchases right from your phone without the hidden cost of frustration and headache.

Price: Free
Available for: iOS

Green Kitchen 

There are a ton of cooking/recipe apps out there, but few of them can compete with the beautiful photos and eco-friendly focus of Green Kitchen.

Whether you’re a vegetarian or you just want to bring fresher, natural ingredients into your home, this app can help!

Green Kitchen has recipes for main courses, snacks and even healthy drinks. The app also includes cooking times and the ability to email or text shopping lists to yourself.

Price: $4.99
Available for: iOS

The Lorax – Dr. Seuss

Ok, this may not be an app in the strictest sense, but sharing this story with your kids is hands-down one of the best ways to help them go green.

I first read about the Truffula Forest and its inhabitants when I was five years old, and I still feel an emotional connection to it.

The iOS version of the book has a few special features as well, such as sound effects and the ability to share and record your voice.

Price: $4.99
Available for: iOS + Android