Bring out your green apps!
There’s still a lot of activity around green apps. If you’re interested in trying out some of them, check out what’s available from recent hack-a-thons and challenges. You can also vote for your favorite app in the Apps for Climate challenge. Check out all of these opportunities and tell us what you think!
If you’re a developer, designer, or environmental expert, consider entering the Apps for Energy challenge. Or just see the great work by your peers at hack-a-thons and challenges.
Recent and upcoming hack-a-thons
EcoHack NYC: This meet-up brought together a diverse community of scientists, hackers, designers and hobbyists that are interested in everything environmental. They even teamed up with The Public Laboratory to add a hardware-hacking component. April 21-22 in New York City
CleanWeb Hackathon: A series of gatherings to demonstrate the impact of applying information technology to resource constraints. The goal is to build apps and hacks exploiting new sustainable business models while leveraging the mobile and social web. January 21-22 in New York City, May 4 in Boston, and more locations and dates!
Apps for Energy by the U.S. Department of Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy is challenging developers and designers to come up with the best use of Green Button downloadable energy usage data. The details are at http://appsforenergy.challenge.gov, but the short version is that they’re offering $100,000 in prizes for the best applications that help utility customers understand their electricity usage and make better-informed decisions. Submissions are due by May 15. For more details, please contact Matthew Loveless at apps@hq.doe.gov.
Apps for Climate challenge by the World Bank
The World Bank’s Apps For Climate is a competition to discover extraordinary ways to use open data to address the challenges of climate change. Submissions are in, so you have until April 27, 2012 to vote for your favorite app (you must register to vote). Winners will receive cash prizes and featured placement on the World Bank Open Data website.
Have you tried all of the 38 submissions to the Apps for the Environment Challenge? They’re designed for you! Follow the action on Twitter at #greenapps.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Green Apps Are Sprouting!
Take a look at all this green app activity! You might want to check out some of these hack-a-thons as a developer, subject matter expert, or interested party. Or take a look at the challenges that are happening now.
Three hack-a-thons will happen in the next couple of weeks:
Code for Livability: The Partnership for Sustainable Communities and The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are hosting a code-a-thon to bring together citizens, web developers, and agency staff to work on solutions that bring sustainability to the forefront of peoples’ everyday lives. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. January 22, 2012 in Washington, DC.
CleanWeb Hackathon NYC: A gathering to demonstrate the impact of applying information technology to resource constraints. The goal is to build apps and hacks exploiting new sustainable business models while leveraging the mobile and social web. January 21 and 22, 2012 in New York City.
London Green Hackathon: A weekend of hacking on climate change, sustainability, energy & carbon emissions. January 27 and 28, 2012 in London.
The World Bank’s Apps For Climate is a competition to discover extraordinary ways to use open data to address the challenges of climate change. Apps For Climate aims to bring together the best ideas from scientists, application developers, civil society organizations, and development practitioners to create innovative software apps using World Bank climate data. Applications must be received by March 16, 2012; winners will receive cash prizes and featured placement on the World Bank Open Data website. To qualify, apps must use at least one open dataset from the World Bank Data Catalog, but are strongly encouraged to incorporate open data from other sources. For more information, visit: www.worldbank.org/appsforclimate, or join in an information meeting on January 31st , also in Washington, DC.
Take a look at the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program Data, which was released recently. It includes publicly available and non-confidential data from the GHG Reporting Program for 2010. The files also contain information reported by suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases such as the six main greenhouse gases, industry sector, state, and quantity of emissions. Or you can look at the EPA GHG Data Publication Tool to see large greenhouse gas emitters on a map.
Don’t forget to use the 38 submissions to the Apps for the Environment Challenge. They’re made for you to use.
So check out all of these opportunities and tell the community if you know of other events!
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
What’s a sustainable model for developers to make green apps?
Our objective for green apps is to foster the developer community to create more applications so people can make sound environmental decisions. To achieve that objective, we’re looking for ways to encourage the sustainable development and use of green apps and we’d like to hear your ideas for what makes sense. EPA started with our large-scale challenge, EPA’s Apps for the Environment, that provided recognition to developers and yielded 38 apps. To help us build on the success of that effort, we’re interested in your ideas about sustainable models that support developers so they can make green apps. We think it makes sense to partner with organizations that have expertise in supporting developers and promoting apps. So thanks for sharing your reactions to some of the ideas presented below as well as any other ideas you believe EPA should consider.
In a recent conversation, Troy Abel, Associate Professor of Environmental Policy at Western Washington University (and advisor to Bob Sabie, who won Best Student App, Runner Up in the EPA Apps for the Environment Challenge with his app Environmental Justice Participatory Mapping) suggested a couple of ways to encourage and support developers to make green apps:
- Encourage existing EPA grant programs (e.g., Environmental Justice Grants Program or the People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability) to explore the role of applicants to consider the role of environmental apps.
- Explore whether large corporations or foundations would want to support an environmental app web site that would collect and promote green apps, and in doing so, encourage more developers to produce environmental apps.
EPA is considering some other ideas such as:
- EPA funding or co-funding a green apps partnerships similar to ChemicalRight2Know, a Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) collaborative forum that the Environmental Council of the States developed through a cooperative agreement with EPA.
- EPA could connect users and developers without formal partnerships. For example, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other parties could describe their requirements for environmental apps and post them online. The agency could encourage developers to create the apps. Then the NGOs or other parties could sponsor, fund, and host the apps. This effort could be performed in a public online space and several parties could create an app together.
Thanks for posting your reactions to these ideas and sharing ideas of your own.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Apps for the Environment Forum Celebrates Success
EPA’s Apps for the Environment Forum recognized the great contributions of developers and other important groups in the green apps community. The five winning app teams were honored, we heard some inspirational talks, and we had a chance to connect with people from diverse backgrounds.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
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