With most students eager to get back to their normal routine, we thought we’d take a moment to recognize some applications built specifically for the typical student life. These illustrate the importance of experiencing the campus life.

Let’s face it, student life is demanding even without a major pandemic interrupting their studies. Between grades, schedules, and maintaining some kind of social life, it’s easy to forget about the impact an individual college-goer is having on the environment. Fortunately,  students and universities are starting to have a hard discussion about what they can do to reduce their footprint and find sustainable solutions on campus.

Students and Universities have started asking questions like:

“How can we reduce electricity consumption?”

“How can we get their students to contribute towards a greener campus?”

“How do we increase campus sustainability, and various other questions?”

“What “greener” practices can they adopt to save the environment?”

An emerging trend is “eco-friendly” apps, specifically geared towards college students. We tested 3 of these world-saving apps and here’s what we found.

Sustainability – the focal point for OSU

THE Ohio State University, THE highest ranked public university in THE state of Ohio, is home to Wexner Medical Center and offers world-class undergraduate and graduate programs. They wanted to take initiatives for a greener future by taking steps to reduce their energy consumption. One of their key energy partners brought on Sunflower Lab to build an app that would gather and analyze information about energy expenditure at OSU.  The application offers users energy saving news, events, and badges that can be claimed by participating in special activities.

This app has helped OSU immensely improve their energy management, increase environmental sustainability, and is leading the campus to a greener future.

Incentivizing Going Green at University of Pennsylvania

Conserving energy has always been a priority at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. To help spread awareness around campus, Wharton created smartphone app that encourages users to engage in sustainable behavior and track their impact. With Wharton Green Tracker app, students can document their activities like recycling waste, opting for public transportation instead of hailing a cab or sharing a ride, and declining plastic bags from a food truck in exchange for rewards. 

Green Tracker also connects users to sustainability events in the area. Carmen Lau, a marketing major in the Wharton School, told Penn Today that she found this app feature to be the most impactful.

Sustainability at Boston University

Boston University (BU), is a world leader in teaching, research, and sustainability. It started back in 2008 when a Sustainability Committee was formed. Green efforts have flourished since then, including the development of a mobile application called sustainability@BU.

The app encourages participants to put sustainability tips into action and earn points, share their sustainability efforts, and interact with other user’s activity on the app. The goal is to create a community of conscious people competing to be the most green so that together, “we can all win.” 

We look forward to a time when students and Universities (and well… everyone) can get back to their normal way of operating. There are plenty of other opportunities for innovation in this space. If you’re wondering how you can contribute to the energy conservation effort through powerful digital tools, we’d love to talk with you.