SAN DIEGO — When it comes to doing something for the environment, how do you figure out what you want to do?
For that matter how do you track it?
A browser-based app PlanetFlip, that works best on your mobile device is out right now.
The idea behind the app is to create competition among different environmental groups to do more than they're doing right now.
Ron Kagan is the Lead Project Manager with PlanetFlip, and collaborated with students from UCSD on the app after a presentation in 2022.
"At the end of the competition the best team gets a certain amount of prizes from sponsors of PlanetFlip. We ended up launching with UCSD's Green New Deal. That launch was last Fall 2023, with a number of students heading up the steering committee for the launch," Kagan said.
The strategy of PlanetFlip is to create a friendly competition between different environmental groups all while keeping score and tracking what they are doing, this is where the students came in.
"They really have told us the way to inspire and get people committed to doing it is to run a competition between teams. To gamify it, to turn it into a game so, when you or I choose something to do we get Climate Points inside PlanetFlip," he said.
Let's face it, we all can use a little motivation even when it comes to helping the planet.
"That way it really begins to be something that encourages people to do more, to research more, to work with one another."
The app presents options, whether it be what you eat, where you bank, or what happens to what you recycle. Originally designed to work with groups it works well for the individual.
"You don't have to be associated with an organization; you can choose the actions you'd like to take," Kagan said.
Kagan wants the app to highlight what is being done for the planet instead of just hearing what's wrong.
"What we don't read is all the positive things we can do and how individual and small group changes can make a monumental impact on the climate," he said.
The great thing about the PlanetFlip app is that it's free and works so well on your mobile device. Definitely inspirational when it comes to doing something for the environment.
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