Zerofy

If you're looking for some help to decrease your carbon footprint, there's now an app that can help you. Zerofy is a European carbon-tracking app that can help you trace your personal emissions, save on energy bills, learn about your footprint, and more. 

What is Zerofy?

Zerofy's functionality is like a cross between a personal fitness tracking app and a smart home app. You input a few details about your lifestyle, diet, and location; then, you can create small goals to decrease your carbon footprint. 

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Zerofy can integrate with some US-based utility companies to track your home's carbon emissions and can connect to some smart appliances and other devices to track your energy output. 

According to the app's creators, Zerofy aims to help people directly decrease their emissions by offering small and sizeable alternative energy options instead of selling carbon offsets.

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How does Zerofy work?

Zerofy collects several details about your lifestyle to pinpoint where and how you can decrease your carbon footprint. When you sign up for the app, it will ask you what your carbon emission goals are, what country, state, and zip code you reside in, your home type, your electricity type, and whether your house has solar panels.

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Then, Zerofy will ask a few questions about your diet, as beef consumption is one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The app will then ask about your transportation methods, and once you input all of these details, you're ready to track your emissions.

In the "Add Emissions" tab, you can input your meals, connect a smart meter for automatic tracking, and add any purchases you make. If you enable location tracking, Zerofy will automatically track your transportation method and calculate your emissions. 

In the "Actions" tab, Zerofy provides minor and major adjustments to your lifestyle, from dialing your thermostat down one degree, reducing your dryer usage, putting your washing machine onto eco mode, installing rooftop solar panels, or switching to an electric vehicle. 

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Zerofy also has a small shopping component, offering products that can help you limit your carbon emissions. Some of these products can connect to the Zerofy app to help track your carbon footprint.

Is Zerofy the future of personalized carbon tracking?

Although Zerofy is relatively easy to use, there's a lot of tracking to keep up with, and that means you'll have to take on the personal responsibility to use the app to its full potential. 

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Zerofy is a European app, coming from a region where biking, taking public transport, eating less beef, and having smaller homes is much more common. So, some cultural aspects could affect the app's popularity with Americans, as many live in car-centric, suburban areas.

However, younger Americans are more open to reducing carbon emissions and are more likely to recognize their personal responsibility to do so. So, apps like Zerofy can help people understand where their personal emissions are coming from and how they can mitigate their daily emissions.

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Zerofy is only available on iOS in the App Store in the US and Europe. But you can join the waitlist to be notified when the app is available for Android and in other countries. 

See also

How I made my home smart on a budget (and how you can, too)How to customize Alexa's responses to Amazon routinesYour HomePod Mini has a hidden temperature and humidity sensor. How to enable itHow to save on utility bills with 4 smart home devices

• How I made my home smart on a budget (and how you can, too)
• How to customize Alexa's responses to Amazon routines
• Your HomePod Mini has a hidden temperature and humidity sensor. How to enable it
• How to save on utility bills with 4 smart home devices