How does travel affect my carbon footprint? What about shopping, refueling or living? With apps you can learn to reduce your own greenhouse gas emissions. Is the country’s new software just another copy?
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Leave the car at home more often, go to the supermarket with a shopping list or switch to green electricity: All of this gives points in a new state app and does well with the so-called ecological footprint. The aim of the “Climate Buddy” app is to reduce or compensate for CO2 emissions, the Ministry of the Interior said. “We want to make a low-threshold offer so that young people in particular deal with the topic.”
This is not a completely new idea, there are already a number of apps for saving energy and protecting the climate or there are CO2 calculators and tips for the “green lifestyle”. “There are also other offers, but we want to introduce the topic through the fun of the game and not through the dead serious approach,” said Matthias Pröfrock from the digitization department of the ministry.
App users can calculate how much CO2 they consume in their everyday life and through their lifestyle. You will also receive tips on how to reduce this. For successful missions – buying regional groceries, a power strip with a switch, fewer plastic bags or an adjusted room temperature, for example – they receive points and improve on a scale. The eponymous “Climate Buddy”, a small long-eared owl, accompanies you through the individual steps.
“The app is a contribution to strengthening and raising awareness of climate protection,” said Digitization Minister Thomas Strobl. The app, which is already available, is to be presented at Gamescom in Cologne. According to the state, it invested around 215,000 euros in the development, maintenance and care of the app.
