7 eco-friendly apps that help businesses go green

Sustainability is more important than ever, particularly in the workplace. Fortunately, there are eco-friendly apps to help businesses go—and stay—green. These apps will help to reduce your business’s carbon footprint, improve your office’s everyday environmental habits, and even plant trees, simply by being more efficient and accountable.

Slack Technologies, Inc. has created the go-to collaboration tool for many businesses around the world. It allows for messaging within specific channels or directly to individuals. The app is available for desktop and mobile. It focuses primarily on productivity and communication, but also makes managing remote tasks simple. This means commuting into an office is not always necessary. 

Anything that enables employees to work remotely, while not at the expense of productivity, is a win-win for the environment and the business. There’s a free version of the app for all platforms, but paid plans provide advanced features for more complex operations.

Ecosia may not be the default search engine for many people who work within large corporations, but it’s easily one of the most eco-conscious. The premise behind Ecosia is simple but noble—they operate like any other search engine but use the majority of their profits to plant trees where they’re most needed. 

What’s more, their servers run on 100% renewable energy, and every search request removes about one kilogram of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It exists primarily as a free web-based search engine but is available as a free mobile app on Android and iOS.

The third on our list of eco-friendly apps is Shine by Joulebug. Shine is a mobile application that aims to get employees motivated about doing good—for themselves and the world around them. It does this by introducing a competitive element into the mix, with fun regular challenges open to individuals. It operates as a type of social network to employees of a single business. 

Shine motivates members to take action across a range of categories, including community, body, and the planet. Once a challenge concludes, everyone can see the impact made—be it improved sustainability, reduced energy usage, less reliance on motorised transport, or better waste and water habits. There’s a basic version of the app available for free, as well as paid plans with more complex feature sets.

The office printer is rapidly losing its status as the hub of activity. This is definitely a positive step for the environment. Rather than printing off reams of unnecessary pages, more organisations are moving towards collaborative online documents, such as those provided by Google Docs. Google Docs offers a full suite of document creation and editing tools that work in web browsers and via a suite of mobile applications.

However, its true environmental strength shines through in its ability to allow online, real-time collaboration and editing among teams. This approach has much less of an environmental footprint than traditional means. The basic Google Docs platform is free for individuals, but organisations may see additional benefits by signing up for the more powerful G Suite.

Forest is a mobile app looking to tackle two big issues—an inability for employees to focus on important tasks, and the world’s ongoing environmental issues. They confront these issues head-on by combining the two. When employees want to focus on a task, they plant a virtual tree to represent it. If the employee stays focused and achieves a pre-set goal, the tree will grow – and become part of a virtual forest. If not, the tree will wither away and die. 

But there’s more to the app than gentle virtual environmental coercion. The app has partnered with Trees for the Future to plant trees where they really matter—in the real world.

Zoom is an industry leader when it comes to facilitating virtual meetings, and it’s a tool that has helped to reduce the financial and environmental costs for many businesses. Large organisations, including Uber, use Zoom for internal and external meetings between employees living and working in multiple destinations around the world. Less time commuting locally, or travelling internationally, means more time spent on the tasks at hand, and a reduced carbon footprint for the business. 

Zoom also works with mobile devices, which consume less energy than desktop computers. There’s a free Basic plan for personal meetings and several paid plans up to an Enterprise level with more feature-rich video conferencing options.

Uber for Business has helped to streamline travel at ground level for organisations of all sizes. It gives complete visibility, insights, and control over ground travel. Uber for Business automates receipts and reporting on all rides, so there’s no need to print out paper receipts along the way. With several green initiatives, Uber is also taking action to make a positive impact on the environment. 

UberGreen, which allows users to choose electric vehicles, is available as a pilot project in certain destinations. The Clean Air Plan supports the Mayor’s vision of a cleaner London, with a key goal being to have all cars on the app fully electric in the UK capital by 2025. UberPool is another effective green transportation option in many cities. It helps reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and by sharing a journey with other riders, it’s a more cost-effective and markedly more sustainable way to travel.

Interested in learning more about Uber for Business? Get in touch.

Although turning a business green requires more work than installing a few eco-friendly apps, this is one way to start. As employees implement daily changes and become more accountable towards the planet, so the incremental steps taken by businesses will start to have an impact on the bigger environmental picture.