5 Green IPhone Apps to Get

Want to help out while celebrating Earth Day but don’t know how? How about trying to make your surroundings more “green”? If you have an IPhone or an IPod touch it’s as simple as purchasing Peggle. Here are five apps to look into:

A Real Tree ($.99) It’s as straightforward a name you’ll find in the App Market. For 99 cents you can buy a tree and have it planted in one of twelve countries that are fighting deforestation. For those that want to help and not get their hands dirty, this is the best option.

CFL Light Bulb Savings Calculator ($1.99) This app shows the effects of what would happen if you changed all the light bulbs in your apartment to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). Just tell it what state you live in, how many bulbs you would switch, and the wattage of each bulb and it will calculate the yearly savings in seconds. I gave it a whirl and I would have a savings of $127.54. That’s about $10 bucks a month that can go to other things and as a college student, every penny counts.

Clear Standards Carbon Tracker (FREE!) This is a nice little app that uses the device’s GPS system to determine your carbon footprint in your daily travels or your vacations. Just input where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and it does the rest. It puts things into perspective on how much damage one can do just by using the bus or train.

Good Guide (FREE!) The people from the Good Guide website have made their info available on the go. It’s the app for those trying to make their lives as green as possible. It gives users detailed ratings on over 70,000 products rating them on health, environment, and social responsibility. It uses the camera as a bar code scanner to find the information within seconds and shows the data in a easy-to-read screen.

Pollution (FREE!) Want to know the quality of the air and water in your area? Pollution will let you know! It will tell you what and who is polluting the air, water, and ground and check if harmful radio waves are nearby. In a 5-mile radius around my apartment, there were 45 sources that were affecting all those things around me. It’s an eye opening app and for the price of free it’s worth the space on your IPhone or IPod Touch.