Low Waste Tips

The best sustainability apps for businesses in 2024

Dan Marek
December 20, 2023
6 minutes

If you're looking for the best apps and tools to help your business reduce your carbon footprint, celebrate your sustainability claims or reach your zero-waste goals, this is for you. Our team of experts have created a list of top-tier sustainability apps with a proven record of helping businesses like yours achieve their sustainability goals without breaking the bank. Let's dive in.

The best sustainability apps for businesses

Our top picks, in no particular order, include:

  • Ecosia - A browser that plants trees!
  • Too Good To Go - A revolutionary app battling food waste.
  • Greenly / Cogo - Carbon tracking made simple and efficient.
  • Zevero - Your go-to for comprehensive carbon footprint management.
  • TreeApp - Plant trees with just a few taps.
  • OceanCo - Dive into ocean conservation.
  • Virtue - Where business meets social impact.
  • Ethy - Bringing ethical choices to the forefront.
  • Scrapp - Smarter waste programs, powered by data.

What makes a great sustainability app?

At this point, you might be wondering: "How do I choose the right sustainability app for my business?" After all, choosing the wrong one could lead to a tricky situation — relying on misleading data, wasting valuable time, or even demotivating your team. So, picking an accurate, user-friendly app that aligns with your business's sustainability goals is super important. The right app should feel like a helping hand, not a roadblock!

  • Must be user-friendly. The best apps are often some of the simplest and easy to use. Making sustainable practices accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
  • Provide data-driven insights. For an app to deliver impact, it should provide detailed analytics for measuring and tracking your company's progress over time.
  • Offer integration capabilities. The best apps seamlessly integrate with your other business and require minimal time investment and set-up costs.

Best sustainability apps for businesses

Best Sustainable Browsing App - Ecosia

Ecosia allows your business to plant trees with each online search. It compliments your organization’s sustainability goals as one of the simplest ways for your team to be climate-active every day. Businesses that use Ecosia receive a regular tree-planting report about the collective impact of their employees’ searches.

A company of 5,000 employees can plant an estimated 100,000 trees over the course of a year.

Best Food Waste Fighting App - Too Good To Go

Too Good To Go lets your business turn surplus food into savings - earning you money back on stock that would have otherwise been thrown away. It's simple, effective, and helps the planet too.

Too Good to Go sees food waste as opportunity that's too good to miss

Best Carbon Tracking Apps - Greenly, Cogo, Zevero

Greenly, Cogo, and Zevero are all sustainable accounting apps that make it simple for your busines to measure, reduce and report your carbon footprint.

Zevero have been instrumental in helping us measure and reduce our global company emissions in line with science based targets. We could not have achieved B Corp certification for the Wieden+Kennedy network of offices without their partnership. - Luke Purdy, Director of Impact @ Wieden + Kennedy
MacBook mockup

Best CO2 and Plastic Offsetting Apps - TreeApp, Ocean Co

With TreeApp, your business can plant trees globally through everyday activities, and Ocean Co helps in ocean preservation by offsetting plastic use.

Ocean Co.

Best Social Impact Apps - Virtue, Share the Meal

Virtue plugs directly into your Shopify store and turns your sales into support for causes you care about, donating a part of each transaction to charity. Meanwhile, Share the Meal is an app supported by the United Nations that lets your business fight global hunger - one plate at a time.

Virtue | Social Impact and Charity Donation App

Best Apps for Celebrating Sustainability Claims - Ethy, Scrapp

With so much greenwashing nowadays, it can be difficult for authentic brands to cut through the noise. Thankfully Ethy and Scrapp for Brands makes it easy for you to communicate your sustainability efforts clearly and credibly, so you can build trust and attract conscious customers. Get Verified and discover your true recyclability rating or work with their experts directly to make smarter, more sustainable packaging decisions.

Learn more about ethy here.

Best Recycling App for businesses - Scrapp

Since its launch in 2019, Scrapp has transformed from a user-friendly barcode-scanning app into a leading zero-waste consultancy, aiding businesses in reducing waste and achieving their sustainability goals. Celebrated for its ease of use and effectiveness, Scrapp is already trusted by top corporations like National Grid, British Airways, and Microsoft.

What makes Scrapp a great sustainability app for your business?

  • Cost Savings: Reduces contamination fees and optimizes operations, saving businesses an average of $20,540 annually
  • Extensive Database: Features over 4 million products in one of the largest packaging databases.
  • Smart Waste Programs: Assists offices, schools, and venues in establishing data-driven recycling strategies.
  • Centralized Dashboard: Simplifies sustainability management and reduces manual audit tasks.
  • Local Community Impact: Works with authorities to improve recycling rates and reduce contamination by up to 90%.
  • Educational Engagement: Offers schools tools to teach effective recycling, enhanced with gamification features like polls and leaderboards.
  • Up-to-date Guidance: Provides the latest recycling information in the UK and USA, backed by a vast network of data and brand partnerships.

Want to start your zero-waste journey?

Are you embarking on your own sustainable packaging journey, or looking to certify the recyclability of your products? Our sustainability experts are here to guide you. If you need further guidance, personalized strategies, or more details about our digital recycling tools, don't hesitate to reach out. We're committed to helping you achieve your sustainability goals.

You can book a free 15-minute chat with our team here.

Article by
Dan Marek