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New iPhone app gets you in the 'green habit'
3rdWhale and Creative Citizen partner to create THE killer app for green living.
Wed, May 06 2009 at 5:42 AM
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Image: Creative Citizen
An MNN exclusive. I just learned of a very exciting partnership between two cutting-edge media companies in California whose love child is destined to become the definitive green iPhone app.
The app, an upgraded version of 3rdWhale -- which provides iPhone owners with access to a rapidly growing list of local, green businesses -- will now carry content from Creative Citizen, the wiki for green living.
Here is a first sneak peak at the app which will integrate a comprehensive collection of "Creative Solutions" for sustainable living:
One feature that sets the Creative Solution apart from those hordes of redundant "green tips" is that each solution carries with it with a set of tangible benefits, enumerating precisely how that action will reduce the use of water, energy, waste, carbon dioxide AND dollars.
Creative Citizen adds up all the actions that you pledge and tracks your cumulative environmental contribution (and financial savings).
3rdWhale allows iPhone users to download the app (for free currently) which provides them with a map of local green businesses by proximity -- everything from organic restaurants to eco-dry cleaners -- and the new Creative Solutions.
The app will be unveiled at an event in Santa Monica this Saturday called "The Evolution of Green: from Hype to Habit." Produced by EcoNouveau, the event will gather together many of California's most influential green leaders to answer one very important question (as quoted on the MaxGladwell blog):
There’s a lot of hype surrounding the green movement, but we’re not seeing a lot of habit. The results just aren’t materializing. Relative to the chatter, there should be much more change. Everyone is green in principle, but very few are green in practice. Why is that?
Well, one answer might be the lack of a portable tool that connects your daily activities with your green intentions. And it is just this void that the new 3rdWhale app hopes to fill by, as they say, "mobilizing the green revolution."
The 3rdWhale app is also designed for what the developers like to call "radical collaboration." A common buzz word in the politically correct world of CSR (corporate social responsibility) but the 3rdWhale/CreativeCitizen guys seem to mean it. Unlike most other apps, it is an open API within Apple's own open API, meaning that 3rd parties can create add-ons to the application, including a rumored green business rating system which will screen business owners for their green practices and rate them accordingly.
I have followed Creative Citizen closely from its formation by Scott Badenoch and Argam Derhartunian into one of the most robust tools for helping individuals live more sustainably. The fact that it is now integrating with a mobile search engine of local green businesses puts it well on its way to becoming the must-have app for green techies.
UPDATE: The Saturday event is currently at capacity but the CreativeCitizen programs will be streaming the event live (including interviews by yours truly) via a twitter feed:
Should be a fun event with lots of eco-celebs of PlanetGreen fame in attendance. You can check back here on this post or watch it on the CreativeCitizen website.
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it's cool!! yahoo
I'll check out the app! Please try our app, MeterRead (Go Green, Save Money, Save Earth). Thanks!
I will check out the app! Our app is called MeterRead and it allows you to easily read your electric meter and see an estimated 30 day kW-h usage. Check it out!
Anonymous: I suspect part of the idea here is to build the content. Especially if it can be edited via iPhone (i.e. if it's an edit API, not just a read API) then it's a collaborative resource. Same thing as Appropedia - it only makes sense if we see it as a way for people to share, to start from something sparse and build a rich set of information.
Simple idea, execution already works. Take your iPhone, go out in the world and find a 'green' project/facility, take a picture, and post it here:
http://www.buildbabybuild.com/uncategorized/gone-greenspotting
Using the 3rd whale content to drive their local listings is a bad idea. That company has so few resources in its system it is far from a help. Just as a example, I looked for a restaurant in walking distance on its app - it gave me one result that was not green and was located 4 states away.
3rdwhale doesn't serve every city or town, but we are in 30 of the largest metro areas in North America with 25,000 green businesses in the database. If we don't have listings in your city yet, you can add your favorites quickly and easily via our website www.3rdwhale.com or the mobile app itself. And if we are in your city, be sure to rate and review--its all about sharing the collective wisdom of the community!
There were only two listings of anything for my area (Durham, NC), so just to test it, I wanted to search on San Francisco, which provided zero results because apparently only zip codes work? One thing that I was looking for was whether 3rdwhale provides an area to rate the relative cost/price. Going green usually is more expensive, so for people on a tight budget, in order to practice being green, they need to data to help them find alternatives that are affordable.
people need to stop cashing in on things that make the world better.
greed is the downfall of everything human.