App Review: Go Green

In the bookstore the other day, I noticed a whole section of books on green living. I wish I was committed enough to sit down, read them all, and truly follow their advice. But until the ocean levels rise enough to fully submerge my California home, I will probably have too many other things on my mind. Until then, the bite-sized tips on Go Green are digestible enough to have some chance of sinking in.

Hey, I didn’t know that: Go Green offers up a simple concept. Every time you open the app, it gives you a new green lifestyle tip. The tips are short, simple, and not completely obvious (at least to me). A laptop uses five times less energy than a desktop computer? Makes sense, but it hadn’t ever occurred to me.

Getting new tips: Go Green says it offers a new tip every time you open the app. I’ve found this to be a bit spotty—it usually offers a new tip, but occasionally it goes back to the previous one. Also, there’s a button in the app that says “Green Tip,” and I expected that I’d be able to tap it to get a new tip, but this didn’t seem to work. This might be just as well, since getting just one tip at a time gives me a better shot at actually remembering what I’ve learned.

Refreshing your memory: Maybe it’s just me, but reading a great new tip and remembering to act on it are definitely not synonymous. So I was pleased to see that Go Green offers a Green List, displaying snippets of all the tips you’ve learned so far. The disappointing part here is that you can only see the snippets; there seems to be no way to display the full tip again once you’ve moved on.

Upgrading your green status: As you keep using the app to learn more about green living (or to refresh your memory on all those little ideas you may have heard elsewhere), Go Green acknowledges your efforts with new badges like Green Friend.

My recommendation: The Go Green app won’t directly lower your carbon footprint or convert your old light bulbs to CFLs. But it’s free, it’s easy, and it may give you some good ideas. Putting this app on your home screen could also serve as a frequent reminder of those green ambitions that can all too easily slip by the wayside.