Apps for adventuring.

Sounds contradictory, but sometimes technology can actually help you get closer to nature. Take, for instance, the following eight iPhone and Android mobile apps, which arm you with ways to find nearby green spaces and the information to identify anything from animal tracks to constellations to rare butterflies. Most of the apps are available offline as well, so you can venture as far off the beaten track as you please.

NatureFind

Discover nearby parks, zoos, botanical gardens, nature centers, wildlife refuges, and more with the location-based NatureFind app. The app also pulls from event listings so you can join organized hikes or participate in educational lectures.

Available for iPhone for free.

SciSpy

With the Science Channel’s SciSpy app, you can capture, tag, and share your wildlife sightings. Once your photo of, say, that funky looking beetle is uploaded, it is date-stamped, geo-mapped, classified, and offered up to a worldwide community to advance scientific research.

Available for iPhone for free.

Audubon Guides

Audubon’s array of more than a dozen Mobile Field Guide apps are a trusted source of information for wildlife enthusiasts. Whether your passion is North American Butterflies or Fishes of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, there’s probably an app for you. Or, splurge on the multi-pack.

Available for iPhone, Android, HP Touchpad, Amazon Apps, and Nook for various prices. Click here for a full list of apps.

MyNature Animal Track Guide

Identify mysterious paw prints with the MyNature Animal Track Guide app, which offers a searchable database with illustrations of both fore and hind feet and complete descriptions of track measurements, gait patterns, and animal life cycles.

Available for iPhone for $6.99 and Android for $4.99.

iBird Backyard Plus

The iBird Backyard Plus app is the ultimate birdwatcher’s tool, with 15 search attributes, 234 backyard bird species profiles, and two hours of audio bird songs and calls from Cornell University.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Leafsnap

Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution joined forces to produce the Leafsnap app, which uses innovative visual recognition software to identify tree species from photos of their leaves. The app is currently limited to trees found in New York City and Washington, D.C., but continental U.S. expansion is in the works.

Available for iPhone for free.

Google Sky Map

Google’s Sky Map app was developed partly to show off the sensors in first-generation Android phones, and partly because the Google developers are admitted astronomy geeks. Now open-sourced, the app provides a “window on the sky” augmented with nifty facts and information.

Available for Android for free.

Trailhead

If trails, hikes, and bike routes are your jam, the Trailhead app from The North Face is a must-download. Not only does it help you locate nearby trails, it can also track your route, distance, speed, and elevation in real-time and let you post the results to your social media channels. What is a challenging outdoor adventure if you can’t tweet about it?

Available for iPhone for free.

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8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

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21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

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Apps for navigating the complicated world of conscious consumption.

When I vowed to become a more conscious consumer last New Year’s Eve, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Measuring the impact of your purchases can be a hefty task, between considering environmental impact, ethical manufacturing, animal cruelty, anti-trafficking practices, carbon footprints… it’s enough to make you reject shopping for good. But neither is the “Buy Less” philosophy a perfect one, and even the most ardent minimalists need to buy necessities like soap and toothpaste from time to time (we hope). These iPhone and Android apps can help you put your dollar where your values are.

GoodGuide

By scanning a product’s bar code, the popular GoodGuide app lets you instantly access health, environmental, and social performance ratings for over 120,000 food, personal care, and household products. The app also provides customized product recommendations and lets you create your own personal shopping lists.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Fair Trade Finder

Discover and share fair trade products with the Fair Trade Finder app from Fair Trade USA, which relies on crowd-sourcing to spotlight fairly traded items available in local shops.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Green Globe App

Travelers can locate sustainable hotels, resorts, attractions, cruise lines, tour operators, and other sustainable tourism projects that have received the Green Globe stamp of approval through the Green Globe App.

Available for iPhone for free.

Cruelty-Free

Find products that haven’t been tested on animals with the Cruelty-Free app, which pulls from a database of companies approved by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program.

Available for iPhone and Android for free. 

Free2Work

Created by anti-trafficking organization Not For Sale and supported by the International Labor Rights Forum, the Free2Work app lets you instantly see how different products and brands relate to trafficking and forced labor with rankings on a scale from A to F.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Closet Swap

“Don’t shop – swap!” proclaims the Closet Swap app, which facilitates clothing swaps by letting you snap pictures of items that have been sitting in your closet and share them with friends.

Available for iPhone for free.

Thrift Buddy

If your ethical shopping strategy includes thrifting, the Thrift Buddy app can help you locate thrift and vintage stores in your area from a database of more than 10,000 spots.

Available for iPhone for free.

The Good Shopping Guide

Drawing from the popular print Good Shopping Guides from the U.K.-based Ethical Company Organisation, the Good Shopping Guide app lets you compare more than 700 brands across seven categories: Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, Travel, Energy, Fashion, Home & Office, and Money. Summary tables display the good, bad, and ugly within each product category.

Available for iPhone for £2.99 (around $4.75).

ALSO CHECK OUT:

6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

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Cut back on your CO2 impact with these apps.

News flash: global warming is very real, and it’s not disappearing anytime soon. While some might say that the only answer is worldwide systemic change, there are ways for individuals to make a small difference by taking steps to reduce their personal carbon footprints. This selection of iPhone and Android apps can help.

Green Outlet

Cut back on your household electricity use with Green Outlet, which helps you identify which appliances use up the most energy. Not only does cutting back on usage help save the planet, it also helps save money. The app also alerts you when you’ve exceeded the U.S. government’s recommended carbon usage and links to TerraPass.com where you can purchase carbon offsets.

Available for iPhone for $0.99.

Just Science

Draw your own conclusions on climate change with the Just Science app, which shows recorded changes in land temperature from the past several centuries on a user-friendly color-coded map. Drawing from Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study data, the app aims to show the effects of global warming, rather than just say them

Available for the iPhone for free.

greenMeter

The greenMeter application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to analyze the environmental impact of your driving practices. The app also provides tips on how to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption and cost by moderating acceleration and choosing more efficient cruising speeds. Though reviewers dispute that the software “pays for itself within 1-2 tanks of gas,” the technology is so cool it warrants a test run.

Available for the iPhone for $5.99.

Clean Energy Fuel Finder

Do you fill your car with compressed or liquefied natural gas? The Clean Energy Fuel Finder app can help you find the closest service stations and even uses GPS to provide directions.

Available for the iPhone for free.

Light Bulb Finder

Easily switch from conventional to energy-saving light bulbs with the Light Bulb Finder, an app that helps you compare the costs, savings, and environmental impact of different bulbs.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

Google Maps

It’s not technically a “green app,” but Google Maps can help you find the most direct driving route, as well as cut back on all that fuel wasted on getting lost. Plus, the Android version includes biking directions to keep cyclists on the safest routes.

Available for the iPhone and Android for free.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

7 Apps to Help You Eat Better

21 Apps for Inspiring and Optimizing Your Home

The post 6 Apps for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Ruin porn is a nasty thing and yet our objectification of all thing crumbling and abandoned is strong. Detroit, the largest city in the state of Michigan is the American automobile industry’s main squeeze. How can the home of Motown music legacies and Motor City mechanics be in such decay? You Know It When You See It takes a closer look.

Mobile social platforms are hot right now and a sustainable fashion app? Right up our alley. Writer Rowena Ritchie interviews GreenGlamGo founder, Clarissa Nicola, about her company’s new green fashion finder app in Sustainable Fashion? There’s An App For That.

We’ve seen too much of Charlie Sheen of late, but when it comes to celebrity consciousness, a star can take a cause a long way. George Clooney – who is certainly easier on the eyes – has a long and storied list of social activism. “Despite his involvement in bringing the Darfur genocide to light, he considers it ‘the greatest failure of my life’ – because little changed after he and his father smuggled cameras into a refugee camp to bring to light the horrors committed against an entire nation.” In Katherine Butler’s column, George Clooney Vs. Charlie Sheen: Welcome To Shade Grown Hollywood, we look at Hollywood without the rose-colored sunglasses.

We launched the new series Places & Spaces this week, and they all depict amazing representations of those idyllic places we all dream of and hope to go to. Shelter editor Leigha Oaks takes us on a visual vacation, first stop: Juvet Landscape Hotel.

The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976. If you’ve never heard of it, Hyde ensures that federal money is not used to fund abortions on military bases, in Planned Parenthood facilities or anyplace else. “Anti-choice politicians and activists have spent a lot of time over the last few months making sure that there’s confusion about how government dollars are used to fund abortions. Here’s the quick answer: they’re not,” explains Libby Lowe. In Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…And Don’t You Dare Get Pregnant, we learn the most intrusive employer of all might just be the U.S. government.

All right, we can’t resist one more…

Has your gardening habit yielded yet another bumper crop of squash or greens you can’t give away fast enough? Plenty of people have the same problem and they’re turning the veggie surplus into a profitable cottage industry. In The Green Plate: Is Urban Farming The Next Green Cottage Industry? we get the update on how the urban farming legalization trend is sweeping the country, and putting green not just in our mouths, but in our wallets.

Image: Michael Ruiz

The post The Friday Five, Vol. 4 appeared first on EcoSalon.

An interview with the founder of a hot new green fashion finder app.

As any stylish eco dresser will tell you, it’s all about access. From finding the perfectly cut organic cotton tee, recycled leather boot or that vintage tea dress that makes a modern statement, putting together a unique low impact look is hard. We rely on tips from those style savvy friends who keep an ear to the ground for new designers, sport lines we’ve never heard of and the scoop on that secret vintage store in town that isn’t overpicked and -priced.

And let’s face it, when it comes to nabbing the best items, relations between pals can get decidedly unfriendly. Ever conveniently forgot the location of your favorite eco store when someone asks where you got that incredible recycled jacket? Or felt a sharp pang of jealousy at a friend’s beautiful vintage find?

Thanks to a new smart phone app launched in the San Francisco Bay Area last week, you’ll have access to all the latest insider information right at your very own fingertips. GreenGlamGo is a mobile social platform that offers the ability to search for green beauty products, sustainable fashion and vintage, handmade items from the retailers who stock them.

GreeGlamGo co-founder, Clarissa Nicola, answers a few questions and shows us how simple it is to keep our shopping sustainable and our shopping relationships civil.

What is GreenGlamGo and how do I get it?

It is for consumers who want access to green fashion, vintage, handmade items, Made in the USA, green bridal, and green beauty products. It is also for green brands and etailers who want to participate on a mobile application platform. We wanted to expand the playing field for consumers beyond online. We created a platform using flash lite 4 and adobe on Nokia phones so their products can be browsed easily and quickly.

What personal challenge inspired the creation of GreenGlamGo?

I have been in the fashion industry for 20 years now, and produced  over 2000 fashion shows and trend presentations for consumers and merchants. After my 10th season of telling customers to buy yet another new pair of black pants for their wardrobe, I stopped and thought “Really?  Do these people really need to buy another pair of black pants? How many pairs of black pants does one person need?”.  I looked at my own closet and realized I had about 20 different pairs, all in different shapes and fit and lengths. Then, I thought of the other basics, like white blouses, t-shirts, and I couldn’t help but think of the impact I was making by motivating people to buy more and inferring that what they had wasn’t enough.

Can you give us a run-thru of the process of say, finding a local fashion designer producing sustainable hats?

We  have four main categories: Handmade, Fashion, Bridal, Beauty. If a user clicks on Handmade, then Hats on the top navigation, they can easily find hats. If they want Bridal hats, they click Bridal first, then hats.

Tell us why you decided to include a handmade section, which doesn’t necessarily feature green designers?

We realize the importance of handmade as it keeps production out of factories, which greatly impact the environment.  With sites like Etsy, we felt it was visually cluttered and hard to navigate. We wanted to feature the best of handmade and to raise that bar by keeping it easy to find within the 4 main categories.

Why do you think it’s so hard to find green and locally produced items?

It is hard because they’re not accessible. No one knows where to find these things. People will buy green if it’s easy and they aren’t inconvenienced. The price has to be right, too. While it can be expensive, we built this platform to give small green businesses a chance to go global and expand their playing field. The more people know about what’s out there, the more accessible it is, and the more prices will go down.

How do you plan to promote GreenGlamGo to communities outside of SF, LA and NYC where it’s so much harder to find sustainably made fashion and beauty?

We partnered with Nokia as Nokia smart phones have a stronger market over the iPhone world wide. Their phones are purchased the most in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia, and Latin America. That is one of the reasons why we went with them. Everyone goes to iPhone first with their app because they dominate the smart phone market in the US. We’re looking to reach as many potential green consumers as possible.

The post Sustainable Fashion? There’s An App For That. appeared first on EcoSalon.

Once, for a short period of time, I had The Man by the balls. And when I say “The Man,” I mean The Man – a corporate giant who keeps us down, corners us and our pocketbooks, gives us no choice, frustrates us at every turn and manufactures, along with his product, that helpless feeling in our gut that we’re up against something unbeatable. When I say “The Man,” I mean my cell phone service provider. And by provider I mean AT&T. And for a brief shining moment, my contract was f’in up. Booyah!

In fact, though it seemed to pass in a heartbeat, it was more than a brief period that I enjoyed the pleasure of having AT&T over a barrel. (Provider. What a generous title.) My Golden Era lasted two years (ironically the same amount of time they make you commit to those inane contracts which ensure you that you are joined at the mobile hip for a full, glorious sentence.)

The freedom – both real and imagined – was extraordinary. When I received my monthly bill, I’d simply have a gander and pick out those charges that I really just didn’t think were fair. “That call to Eastern Europe cost how much?!” ” I thought I had unlimited texts!” “You mean I wasn’t covered for Internet usage?!”

All it took was a simple call and a moment for the front-line customer assistant to figure out who I was – an off-contract customer, An Opportunity for Customer Retention.

“Sir how can help you? Are you ready to re-up your contract?”

“Um, no, I’m shopping providers right now and will be making a decision very soon, but in the meantime, there’s this thing on my bill”¦”

“Oh dear, Mr. Adelson, I am so sorry! Just give me a moment here and”¦ there now, all those nasty charges have just been deleted. So about your contract”¦”

“Oh hey, gotta run. Thanks though! You just kept me from jumping ship! Back to you soon on the contract thing!”

Such sweet pleasure.

But how real was it? In the end, was it a mere illusion of freedom? Just a voice on the other end of the line telling me what I wanted to hear? Did I have Him or did He have me?

On the can-we-really-get-along-without-certain-gadgets front (here we’re talking the penultimate gadget; the Cell Phone), I’ve recently seen a few articles fly by on the power of living without. What would it be like to be off the grid completely, beholden to no cell-phone Man?

Joel Stein, writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, posits that the “Luddites may actually be power brokers,” and that “not having a cell phone means that the world has to run on your time.”

In the article, he sums up what we’re up against: “Everyone has a cell phone now. There are more than 280 million mobile subscribers in America, according to the Federal Communications Commission. According to a 2005 international study by Advertising Age, 15 percent of Americans have interrupted sex to answer their phones. Even people who are videotaping themselves having sex, like Paris Hilton, stop to answer a call.”

Stein goes on to say not having a cell phone is a way we can take back power, noting that a few people who know power on first name basis, like Warren Buffett and Russian billionaire and New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, have dumped the gadgets. (Some heavy-hitter celebs, too, have chosen to hang up.) The article goes on to tell the tales of a number of other people who have given up the habit, folks who have had enough and are not gonna take it anymore. I read each of their stories. I was impressed.

In many ways, we present a paradox of gadget infatuation. We talk about what’s cool and new, shiny and green, all with a what’s-happening-now bent. But we also talk about ways to avoid being slaves to The Man, thinking outside the proverbial box, not being afraid to “just say no” to obvious trends that aren’t healthy for you. Recently, I posted a story about the green and not-so-green aspects of the iPad, in which I posed a question of awareness regarding our decision to buy any gadget: do you need it or do you want it?

This question – and freedom from gadgets and the Men and Women who service our addictions – is something I wrestle with almost every day. And while I’m happily a later-than-some adopter when it comes to toys and I think I do a pretty good job distinguishing between my needs and wants, I will say this when it comes to certain products: When I fall, I fall hard.

Which brings me back to my cell phone moment in the sun. Oddly, it was a moment in the sun that brought it all to an end. I was sitting on my balcony, doing some hardcore Ra worship, talking into my contract-free, trusty little Razor (my connection to freedom – as long as that little baby held up, I was safe). And the screen went black. Literally. It died in the heat that day, and though I cannot say exactly how long I held out after that moment, it was probably mere minutes before I realized what had to be done.

I crawled back to The Man. I took the deal on the iPhone and I smiled big when they handed it to me. So there it is. Was I really ever going anywhere? A new “provider,” maybe. But true freedom? Was I threatening the man or was I blowing in the cell phone wind? The answer came way too easy: Two years? Where do I sign?

Image: lemuelinchrist

The post Hung Up on Cell Phones appeared first on EcoSalon.

Q: When is 4.5 percent a lot? A: When it’s up from .11 percent. On the good-news front, that major increase (you do the math, because I just don’t do math) represents an anticipated jump in the number of mobile communications base stations powered by clean energy sources – namely, solar and wind – between today and 2014.

Four-and-a-half percent is also a lot when you consider the ongoing exponential rise in worldwide mobile communications and its required energy-using infrastructure (by the end of 2008 there were an estimated 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions, up from one billion in 2002). These figures, released last week by clean-technology market research firm Pike Research, are particularly important in remote areas, where there’s no (or only cost-prohibitive) access to grid power. In these places, base stations are often powered by dirty diesel generators. This means an even greater increase in clean-powered stations – to an estimated eight percent – in developing countries.

Accelerating the shift to solar and wind power generators, says the New York Times, is increased carbon legislation, price reductions in clean-power technology, and phone companies wanting to reduce high diesel fuel costs. In many cases, new clean-powered base stations in developing countries are using solar/wind hybrid options augmented by emergency backup systems in the form of a fuel cell or a diesel or biomass generator.

Fast Company boils it down: “[It’s] an obvious quick and easy score to reducing the impact of a cell phone network: It doesn’t need cabling, no fuel needs to be shipped to the location or even burned in a remote power station. It can also reduce the cost associated with connecting a base station to the larger grid.”

Image: U K

The post Calling on Clean Energy: Mobile Phone Base Stations Go Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

After a morning spent watching National Geographic Carnivore with my 9-year-old future vet (lions preying upon a limping, unsuspecting buffalo), I was happy to encounter this gentle Jungle Friends Mobile in which the only thing eaten is the blankie by the little thumb sucker inhabiting the crib.

I love the laser-cut bamboo plywood figures, which are assembled by a non-profit agency that employs adults with disabilities. $76 at Branch Home. The artwork can enjoy a circle of life after baby. Let it migrate to another space for an exotic conversation piece.

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