green sustainable apps for smartphones to travel more responsible

7 Best Travel Apps for Responsible Travel

By The GreenPick • 7 years ago

Nov
2016

We are ALL addicted to our smartphones. I have come to believe that it’s no longer possible to live without one nowadays, which is both sad and flabbergasting. But this topic will be looked into another time. Today, we would like to introduce to you a non-exhaustive list of brilliant apps that are not necessarily aimed at travel, but that all have in common one thing: the profound desire for human kind to consume less, more sustainably.

Below you will find the applications that we utilize on a regular basis; most are still being developed in order to give you the best experience, some others are already very well established.

Happy Cow : where to eat?

This relatively well known app puts together an overview of vegan and vegetarian restaurants and shops by city worldwide. The big plus is that the app also provides you with the general vibe of the establishment, if it’s a purely vegetarian or vegan restaurant or a place that simply offers vegetarian options. You will also be given the distance to the spot and the average restaurant prices. All in all, a highly useful application wherever you are in the world. App available on Itunes and Android Store.

Carbone mission calculator application: my carbon footprint?

This calculator is always essential in order to be aware of the quantity of carbon emissions generated by your travels. It will indicate you how much you will need to offset. For plane rides, use the Carbon Emission Calculator (Iphones and Androids) and for other types of transport make use of the My Carbon Footprint app (Android).

Apps for Vegans

There are several apps here for various types of usage. The first one is Vegan Life (Android) or That Vegan Life (Itunes)– it provides you with the translation of “I am vegan” in all languages as well as the ingredients that you can consume or not in that country’s native language. It also gives you a lot of practical advice regarding your grocery shopping and restaurant dishes, as well as numerous other links to other online resources of interest. Then there is the Go Vegan app that locates you and indicates all the vegan dishes in the nearby restaurants. You feel like a vegan pizza? There’s nothing simpler than finding it with this app!

Then comes the app Go Vegan (Android) or Vegman (Iphones) which geolocate you and give you all the vegan dishes in the restaurants nearby. You want a vegan pizza? Nothing more simple!

Tree Planet : a game that plant trees!

It’s the first game that plants trees. Of South Korean origin, this game allows you to plant trees in various parts of the world. It’s enough to simply play and the profits are used for reforestation! Moreover the game itself is really cool – you have to protect a baby tree from incoming vicious attacks.

PlantNet Plant Identification (Android) or LeafSnap (Apple store) for nature lovers

If you love nature just like we do, you’d love to know the names of what you observe. This app can recognize the different plants around you. You have the option to look for your plant in a comprehensive database or to ask an expert.

Sea food guide: for those who don’t want to compromise on seafood

You are at the seaside where restaurants aren’t serving anything but seafood and fish. You don’t want to pass up the opportunity of tasting a local dish but at the same time you are against industrial fishing that puts in danger certain marine life species. Therefore the first thing to do is to choose a fish from the list of unprotected fish (and therefore not endangered) with the help of the Seafood Guide app that will let you know which fish is endangered.

Second thing to do is to ask the restaurant personnel if the fish is caught in a sustainable manner (CSA or MSC labels), net or line etc. Consuming seafood such as shellfish is not bad for the planet, but eating shrimp or lobster isn’t recommended as they come from Vietnam en masse, filled with antibiotics – we advise you to reconsider your choices. In short 2 apps really helpful; Seafood Guide and Good Fish Guide both available on Android and for Iphones you have the SeaFood Watch app as an equivalent.

Green Globe and Green Key : app to sleep green

Those 2 labels are also offering apps to find the closest certified hotels. useful apps but which do not include hotels ratings. However they remain very useful to check the certifications of your hotels and ensure a greener stay. Green Key (Android only) and Green Globe (Itunes and Android) are free apps.