Zerofy App Helps People Take Action on Climate Change
Guest Post by: Hannah Griffin, Head of Marketing at Zerofy
There’s no doubt about it—climate anxiety is real. Many people these days are having a difficult time grappling with the growing data showing the state of our earth. For some, climate anxiety can be further compounded by wondering: can I even make a difference as just one person?
At Zerofy, we believe the answer to that question is a resounding yes. By taking initiative in our own lives and reducing our emissions, we can be part of and support the wider energy transition. A statistic that often surprises people is that more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions can be indirectly attributed to households. This means that households can be key players in reaching the goal to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 °C as set by the Paris Agreement. So, you might be just one person, but you have power to act, right in your home.
Zerofy was founded with a vision to provide people with a great tool to decarbonise their households. Co-Founders Till Quack and Criss Uudam wanted to harness the power households possess to make a real difference in climate change. The outcome? A climate app that empowers people to track and reduce their emissions. We believe that with the Zerofy app, reducing emissions and switching to low-carbon energy doesn’t have to be painful and full of friction. Since we launched the app in 2022, we’ve seen great engagement from our passionate users, and have been featured in Fast Company.
So, what is the Zerofy app?
Zerofy is an iOS app that helps household decarbonise. The app tracks your household footprint, automated and in real-time, and helps you decarbonise, learn, and save money on heating and energy. You can think of it like a step tracker, but for your carbon emissions. Zerofy tracks your emissions across four main sources: mobility, home heating and energy, food, and goods and services. This is to give our users the most holistic and comprehensive picture of their household carbon footprint. Instead of getting static data on one source of emissions, like food, you’ll get real-time data from all four main sources, at your fingertips. With good data on emissions, people can be the most successful in making informed decisions and reductions.
It’s easy to get started with the Zerofy app.
- Download from the iOS App Store
- Go through a quick onboarding. Enter your household characteristics, plus details about mobility, diet, home heating and energy. Connect smart home appliances and devices, and your credit card if you like, for even deeper insights.
- Zerofy automatically generates your household carbon emissions, in real-time.
- Access tailored actions you can take to reduce your emissions (including renting solar panels in our solar park). Plus, learn through articles and guides, and access low-carbon products and services.
- Habitually track emissions and see the impact of your actions on your household carbon footprint while working towards being zero-carbon.
What will I be able to access in the Zerofy app?
Your summary: When you open the Zerofy app, you will first see a view that shows your emissions for the week, broken down by category. Once you’ve been using the app for a few weeks, you’ll be able to toggle back to see how your current week compares with past ones. You can also see your weekly CO2 budget, and how much you’ve used so far.
Emissions Tab: This is where you can see a granular breakdown of all of your household emissions. A graph will show you your daily emissions, colour-coded by category. If you scroll down, you can see each emissions-generating activity. For example, if you take a three-kilometer drive in your Subaru Outback, this will automatically be tracked and the associated CO2 emissions recorded. The emissions recorded here are mostly automated, allowing you to gain deep insights without having to spend a lot of time performing manual input.
Actions Tab: A cornerstone of the Zerofy app is that we help people reduce emissions and transition to low-carbon energy. We do this by offering up tailored Actions based on your profile and household. Some examples of these Actions are switching to an electric vehicle, installing a smart thermostat, switching to green electricity, and using your washing machine in the eco-cycle. In the Actions tab, you can see the impact in terms of CO2 reductions each can have for your household. Plus, you’ll learn about how to get started, and can track which Actions are in progress and completed. One Action we’re very proud of is our Shared Solar offering (see more below!)
The Discover Tab: We’re very passionate about helping people find innovative low-carbon products and services. A lot of great products and services already exist that can support you in reducing emissions and measuring energy usage. But, we know that it can be hard sometimes to find them. To this end, we’ve curated best-in-class items and included them for you to browse in the app. We only choose high quality products we have confidence in. Some examples of these great products are smart plugs, smart shower heads, EV chargers, and highly efficient washing machines. The Discover tab also includes all of our blog posts and guides related to low-carbon living. You can read them all, right in the app.
Zerofy Shared Solar
In late 2022, Zerofy launched our Shared Solar park! This is a solar park we own and operate, that anyone can rent solar panels in. Your rented panels stay in our park, and we sell the generated electricity into the grid at the actual market price. After a 20% operating fee, the proceeds belong to the panel renter.
We started Shared Solar because we wanted to help anyone who is interested in supporting solar energy make a contribution. This means that people who rent apartments can get involved in solar, as well as homeowners who don’t yet have the funds for their own panels. We think solar energy is going to play a critical role in the energy transition, and we are aiming to get more people involved through this project (who may not otherwise have the ability to do so).
Some people may already be familiar with the concept of community solar and wondering how Shared Solar differs. Zerofy Shared Solar is unique because it’s actually fully digitized. You can rent the panels directly from the Zerofy app or our website, and then you can see all of your solar panel’s data, in real-time in the app! This includes your panel’s electricity production, CO2 saved, as well as earnings.
Zerofy is available in Europe in the iOS App Store. It will be available in the US in 2023.
Download Zerofy in the App Store
Join the waitlist for non-European countries
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