10+ Best Eco-Friendly Apps For Sustainable Travel and Lifestyle

Are you curious how you can make your travel a little more sustainable? It can be hard to know where to start, which is why these eco-friendly apps can help guide you toward a more sustainable lifestyle and travel habits. Thanks to Meredith, eco-tourist extraordinaire, for digging in and sharing all these great apps with us! Make sure you check out her blog for more resources and pin this post, so you always have it handy. 

Eco-living isn’t as off-the-grid as some would like to think. Especially with sustainability trending in the wake of a global pandemic that shook most of us to our core. The good news is, though, that now the majority are self-educating on sustainable lifestyle practices. Further still, on how those practices can spill over into their travel preferences. Nowadays, innovators and environmentalists team up to design and deliver an eclectic mix of utilities, albeit by way of mobile applications. But, with these 10 eco-friendly apps, even the most stubborn of us can navigate our way to a more sustainable (travel) lifestyle.   [no_toc]

Can apps help you go green?

I know what you’re thinking; can apps help me join the sustainable living movement? Absolutely they can. They provide an informative starting point for those without any idea where to begin. Applications are still trending by way of smartphone usage on a global schematic, so jump right on that bandwagon. 

Need a little more direction than that?

Keep reading to learn about 10 eco-friendly apps best for adapting to a more sustainable lifestyle; in and out of the home.

• Eco-friendly apps can help travelers embrace a green approach to both their lifestyle and travel trends
• One of the best ways to be a better traveler is to be more green at home!
• Green living at home and abroad? – Yep, there’s an app for that!

When it comes to sustainable living, start first by trying out My Little Plastic Footprint. This mobile app holds you accountable for your sustainable efforts – or lack thereof. Put yourself on a ‘Plastic Diet’ of sorts as this app helps you practice using less plastic. It takes it one step further by offering alternative methods to plastic use, two green thumbs way up for that. They say it takes 30 days to build a habit. Let My Little Plastic Footprint help you build habits that benefit our planet.

Secondly, if you are tired of having an abundance of paper mail cluttering your tabletop, try PaperKarma. Collect those unwanted envelopes, open and snap a picture of them, then upload it to the app. PaperKarma will automatically unsubscribe you from the sender’s mailing list, directly reducing your individual paper waste.

The third eco-friendly mobile app recommended for more sustainable living is Giki. Used widely in the United Kingdom, this app acts as a personal sustainable shopping companion. Scan thousands of products to discover if (and how many) Giki Badges the product has. Prioritize sustainable causes, too; avoid products not made with sustainable palm oil or that harbor harmful toxins. Giki Zero part of the Giki family helps you track and monitor your overall carbon footprint.  

Moving on to helpful app number four, reGAIN.

Pro Tip: One of the best ways to be a more sustainable traveler is to life a more sustainable lifesytle overall. Think about ways these apps and other tools can help you alter your daily lifestyle, so your travel has more meaning!

With reGAIN, clothing from large retailers is offered to you with discounts on new buys in exchange for your old items. The older items are recycled, reused, upcycled, or used as combustibles for energy production. My jaw hit the floor upon discovering this one too. Piggybacking on this app, a bonus app I recommend for recycling is iRecycle. This app helps locate recycling facilities near you for those awkward items like VHS’ or CDs, and other technology. 

A few bonus eco-friendly apps 

Last, but most certainly not least, let’s talk about commuting. There are two options here – you’re welcome for another bonus app recommendation- to help reduce emissions: Bikemap and Commute Greener. The former provides over 1 Million cycling routes and comes equipped with voice navigation. The former tailors’ vehicular routes with efficiency and even suggests ride-share options near you.

Now that your interest is thoroughly peaked, let’s get to the good stuff; the travel side of sustainability. 

First up on this helpful list, is Green Travel Choice, often referred to as the GTC. Like Commute Greener, the GTC helps minimize the environmental impact of traveling by monitoring the emissions of globetrotting. Remarkable what can be done nowadays from the palm of your hand, right? Being able to choose alternative methods of travel as a direct result of your findings on the app can be empowering, to say the least. 

The second most recommended sustainable travel app is Refill. Tapping into a global network of locations supporting sustainability in the palm of your hand. Amazing. Reduce, reuse, and quite literally, refill commonly used items to reduce waste and plastic consumption. This is aces for slow travelers but suits all travel styles, too.

Continuing on the environmental footprint route, the third recommendation is Oroeco. Track your daily emissions during your routine of shopping, driving, and even energy usage in your home. The app provides gentle nudges to notify you when (and where) you can cut back. How amazing is that?

A few more helpful eco-friendly apps

This next suggestion restores faith in big businesses, Ecosia. This search engine actually helps save the planet. With 100% of proceeds being filtered to climate change research and resolutions, a minimum of 80% of those funds goes directly to planting trees. In fact, every new download of the mobile app plants a tree so go on, do something wonderful for the world. 

Pro Tip: Use the Ecosia app to research your next trip. Articles from some of your favorite sustainable travel bloggers, including yours turley, will come up! Using Ecosia you can search for sustainable ecotourism or tourism leakage!

It would be remiss to talk about climate change without also harping on Plume Labs: Air Quality, the fifth and final eco-friendly app recommendation. This handy app measures the air quality of all the international hotspots. Taking it one step further, the app also suggests potential changes in the air quality of a chosen destination up to 72-hours. Thought that cabin property was the best play space for the family? Better double-check that before making concrete travel plans.

Air Quality is a major concern around the world impacting health. Learn more about air quality and engage in a cool citizen science project to build your own air quality monitor at home. 

Aren’t you feeling more green already?

Discuss and Share

Which apps will you adapt to your daily life? 

With these 10 eco-friendly apps, a more sustainable lifestyle is more than within reach. That means doing our part to save the planet has become that much easier to execute on a daily basis. And that’s truly what we all want, isn’t it?

Download and become accustomed to a few of these helpful apps ahead of your next globetrotting or relocation adventure. Become part of the sustainable travel movement and advocate for the eco0-friendly approach to living and travel. So which of these 10 eco-friendly apps will you try first?