It’s become a lot easier if you’re tech savvy to be more ‘green!’

We seem to be doing everything on our phones and devices these days through mobile apps; reading the paper, checking weather, watching movies, monitoring investments. Why not give a mobile app a try when making ‘in the moment’ purchases and you want every dollar to count?

As we move toward a greener, healthier lifestyle, many of us make decisions based on our values. It seems overwhelming at times, when you’re ‘in the moment,’ perhaps at the grocery store or pharmacy, to take the time to research an ingredient or make the best possible choice for a purchase. We don’t always have the information right at hand to help us decide. Give these mobile apps a try whether you’re looking for food additives, researching a restaurant, or digging into a company’s best practices. Make every dollar count, and find the products that are in line with your values.

Here are some mobile apps to help you get started:

Think Dirty: This app allows users to scan a personal care product’s barcode and get not only a list of the ingredients, but also see how they stack up in terms of their potential toxicity to the human body. The app gives products a score on the “Dirty Meter,” based on the inclusion of certain carcinogens or allergens, and offers alternative options for cleaner products. Includes over 1600 brands, and 60,000 products, and is available for iOS or on the web.

GoodGuide: The GoodGuide app instantly reveals whether products are safe, healthy, green and socially responsible while you shop. The app’s barcode scanning feature lets you quickly access GoodGuide’s science-based health, environment and social ratings for over 170,000 products.

OpenLabel: This app, for iOS and Android, claims to bring radical transparency to everyday products through its labeling system, which allows both individuals and organizations to attach their own labels to a product, instantly, using the product’s barcode. These labels are then open to the public to see, and to comment on, through the website and the app, in essence acting as a social network and review platform for products where users can share their thoughts on the products and help others to either choose or avoid buying them.

Smart Gardener: This web app lends a (green thumbed) hand to potential backyard growers and teaches its users the skills necessary for an abundant organic garden, from planning to buying the right seeds to starting seedlings and planting them in the soil. Smart Gardener guides users through the process of choosing the plants best suited for their location (and the database includes over 3000 organic, GMO free, edible varieties), determining where in the garden to plant each variety, and deciding how many of each to plant to feed their household.

Waterprint: This iOS app helps you calculate just how much water is embedded in your daily activities, including what you wear, eat and drink. The Waterprint calculator tells you how much water it takes to grow a banana, manufacture a T-shirt, or brush your teeth, so you can make wiser water choices.

Changers CO2 Fit: Changers, the company which brought us the tweeting solar and the socially networked solar credit system, is back with a new offering. The CO2 Fit app, which is for both iOS and Android platforms, makes carbon emissions personal by tracking each trip you take, and what method of transport is used (car, bicycle, public transportation, train, or plane), to calculate the amount of CO2 emissions generated (or avoided) for each trip.

What other apps have you been using to help support your green lifestyle, activism, or healthy living efforts

Resource: http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/healthy-living-apps-kick-new-year.html