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The site “My Green Apps” offers almost 300 different apps, some created by government agencies and others by private companies and developers. By far the majority of them are free for the downloading and while many are consumer oriented, several offer businesses the means to identify waste streams, emissions, and other information they can use to go a little greener in 2014, and maybe even reduce their regulatory burden along the way.
For example, for businesses that want to get a handle on their carbon footprint, the app Environmental Impact Calculator can assist by helping to estimate a building’s baseline carbon footprint and measure the annual (or longer term) impacts of any energy efficiency improvements or modifications made over time. Another similar app called CarbonTrack helps business define estimated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from such business activities as travel/transportation, internal and supply chain operations, and different waste streams.
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One very popular app topic is that of green commuting and transportation. For companies that have adopted alternative fuel vehicles for business operations there are several apps that help locate alternative fuel stations, including DriveAlternatives that maps several thousand fuel stations and Alternative Fuel Station Locator that locates stations by zip code. For electric vehicles users there is the app for ChargePoint, which claims to be the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network. Regardless of the type of vehicles your businesses uses, there are also several apps that can help avoid traffic congestion, such as INRIX Traffic, while others monitor driving habits to increase fuel efficiency like Green Gas Saver, or even help locate a green mechanic with FindGreenGarage.
The site also offers a variety of apps designed to address different aspects in specific geographic areas. For example, ChesapeakeStat offers information for businesses and the public about protecting the fragile Chesapeake Bay watershed including goals, indicators, strategies, and funding. In the Great Lakes region, the Great Lakes Early Detection Network app lets users report invasive species that can have dire consequences on both the environmental and the economic health of the region. The information is integrated and used to provide invasive species early detection email alerts. Similar invasive species apps are also available for New England, the Mid Atlantic, southern forests, the Missouri River watershed, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and the Southeast United States.
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Also of interest to business and industry are apps that provide information about sites and facilities that are regulated by EPA. One such app is My Right to Know (myRTK) that allows users to simply type in a zip code to access information about industrial facilities that manage toxic chemicals in that area. For anyone interested in knowing where spills have occurred, the app Toxic Spills Near Me uses data reported to EPA to provide mapped locations of 78,000 reported toxic releases nationwide.
These are just a few of the many apps available at My Green Apps and still others are offered that address weather, renewable energy, walking and biking, climate change, food, and other topics. The site also provides the opportunity to suggest apps for development and to review the suggestions of others. For app developers, there is a Developers Central web page to encourage the use of EPA’s web sites as well as sample code for different platforms.