8 Ecofriendly Facebook Applications

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Rainbow fish has no foreign car.

restarting laptop without password of AL 7:38PM May 19, 2010

Does Green Patch actually give donations to anyone? What is the name of the organization behind it? Where is this organization located? Is it a charitable organization? Do they have a 501-C3? Have they ever been audited? Has anyone at USNews ever tried to find out whether this thing is what it says it is?
And do they (or any other FB application developers) have a privacy policy?
Anyone who uses a Facebook Application of any kind opens up ALL the information of ALL of their Friends to that application's developer, whether or not the Friend participates in that application. This is a gold mine for marketers and spammers.

of 6:33PM July 15, 2009

Hi, Maura -
I just came across your reviews - terrific work. We're a web strategy firm with a sustainability focus, and always on the lookout for inspiration and success stories.
I'm a little late to the game here, but I thought I'd let you know about Green Gifts, the application we created for BC Hydro in Canada.
We wanted to take all that gift-giving activity on Facebook and give it a sustainability edge; you send free gifts (green-themed icons) to your friends with personal messages, and each gift includes a practical tip for conserving energy and reducing your environmental footprint.
Hope you have a chance to give it a try. And thanks again for this round-up - it's going to be hugely useful.
Cheers,
--r.

Rob Cottingham 12:03AM October 23, 2008

Thanks for pointing these out. I am honestly not on facebook enough to dig these up, but I will certainly start adding some of these this week.
Rob
www.greenertrends.com

Rob of FL 12:32PM August 14, 2008

Hi Maura,
Thank you for updating the post to reflect how Green My Vino really works!
Robby

Robby Bearman of CA 3:23PM August 13, 2008

Hi, this is Robby Bearman from Village Green. We appreciate being included in your assessment of ecofriendly Facebook apps!
A point of clarification though: Village Green does not buy green power FOR the wineries. Village Green buys green power for the Facebook users. Then, when the users of the application meet the wineries' goals for "minutes passed", the Wineries buy themselves green power.
This is an important distinction. By giving a small amount of free green power to Facebook users and introducing them to green wineries, we incentivize the wineries to purchase a large amount of green power.
Why is this significant? Well, the wineries have already purchased 1,500,000 kWh of green power from the California grid. The CO2 intensity of the California grid is .879 lbs/kwh. This means that the wineries have avoided roughly 1,318,500 lbs of CO2, after only a week of our application existing.
Compare that to any of the other ecofriendly applications listed here, and you start to see why Green My Vino creates much more environmental benefit per action than any of them.

Robby Bearman of CA 1:40PM August 13, 2008