Environ [Siri & Sadie]

Environ is a social media and goal-setting platform that makes environmentalism trendy and cultivates the next generation of changemakers.

environleaf.glitch.me

As humanity technologically advances and the human lifestyle surges forward, it is coming at an extremely steep cost-the environment. Issues such as global warming, limited natural resources, and reduced biodiversity have become increasingly politically polarized. Gen Z has inherited a broken, pillaged Earth and it is our job to fix it before it's too late. Through the right knowledge and resources, Gen Z can play a vital role in stopping Climate Change. Environ harnesses the power of technology and the popularity of social media to enable users to make a difference in the environment and empowers them to influence and inspire others. Essentially, Environ makes it easy for anybody to be environmentally friendly. It allows users to set goals and make small climate-conscious lifestyle decisions that they can complete periodically. For example, users could set goals to replace plastic water bottles, bags, or straws with reusable ones, start composting, and even cut down on meat consumption. Environ also utilizes ‘influencing for good’, as users can create new ‘leafs’ or posts, to let others know what they have done! By providing achievable goals and simple solutions Environ empowers anyone and everyone. 

Our daily lives have become dependent on electricity than ever before. But even though the human lifestyle is surging forward, it’s coming at a steep cost - the environment. As many as 20% of Americans in climate change denial[Pew Research]. The more we rely on and use transportation and electricity, the more heat-trapping greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere, causing the planet to warm at an alarming pace. This is not even to mention the plastics polluting the ocean, deforestation disrupting ecosystems, and more. Without the proper information or call to action, we may lose the planet which we call home.  Although the problems facing the environment may seem overwhelmingly large, we can all pitch in to help turn this climate crisis around. With the right knowledge and resources, anyone can play a part in stopping climate change right from their own homes! That’s why we’re building Environ. Environ makes it easy for anyone to be environmentally friendly. It will allow users to choose from a list of simple goals that they can complete daily, weekly, or monthly to be more environmentally friendly. The solutions to this climate crisis are often made to seem too big for us to handle. But by providing achievable goals and simple solutions, Environ empowers anyone and everyone to make a change for the environment.  We know that there is no Planet B, so we must ALL step up. 

Environ is the first solution of its kind- it is both a social media platform and a way for people to set goals and take actions, making change one small step at a time. There are no other platforms like Environ, and the need for Environ is clear: the aspiring environmental activists of Gen Z need a collective platform to coordinate with, inspire and influence each other. Most solutions for the environment have more long-term, systemic goals, Environ focuses on getting everyday people involved in smaller actions to help the environment so that they will stay motivated. The impact is multiplied via a larger community, as more people are able to commit to their goals and post about their journeys. This influencer-goal setting system is unique to Environ and immerses users in environmental justice.

The Target Market is Generation Z and those interested in environmental activism and saving the Earth. Environ will primarily profit off of ads it runs on the platform, sponsorships, and more. Environ is currently in the Startup and prototype phase. We hope to deploy our prototype and establish a solid audience before expanding Environ’s features including ‘streaks’ and educational tabs. Environ is different from other programs and solutions already out there because it focuses on helping users keep motivation and take actions one small step at a time. 

Social media has become a major part of our daily lives and is particularly a favorite pastime of teens. Through the rise in internet influencers, we have also seen that social media is a persuasive tool. Teens are more likely to try something if they see others doing it on social media, and the same goes for environmentalism. With Environ’s social media style, teens are more likely to become involved, spreading environmental impact while also allowing teens to enjoy social benefits.We would engage others through partnership with more well-known environmental organizations and brands that, allowing us to connect with a group of people who have already shown interest in the environment. We would also engage others by advertising the social media part of our website. This makes the site appealing to teens and sets us apart from projects that do not allow users to connect and share. We plan to use existing social media platforms to get a socially-focused crowd interested.

We have shared our solution to those at the Jacobssen Innovators Competition, General Motors, and Ashoka. We also shared our solution with other youth, who were interested in the idea at the General Motors Changemaking Summit.

The solutions to this climate crisis are often made to seem too big for us to handle. But by providing achievable goals and simple solutions, Environ empowers anyone and everyone to make a change for the environment. 

Social media has become a major part of our daily lives and is particularly a favorite pastime of teens. Through the rise in internet influencers, we have also seen that social media is a persuasive tool. Teens are more likely to try something if they see others doing it on social media, and the same goes for environmentalism. With Environ’s social media style, teens are more likely to become involved, spreading environmental impact while also allowing teens to enjoy social benefits. 

Environ is currently in the idea stage, however we are working diligently to make a difference with this unique application. Once we get Environ’s database and user interface fine-tuned, and deploy it with a solid audience we plan to quantitatively measure the impact through user engagement research studies. We will analyze the amount of posts being created, comments on each post, and the amount of goals being set and reached. We will use this information, along with user survey results, to maximize community engagement by fine-tuning Envron’s functionality. 

Moving forward, we would love to add more functionality to our website, including a login database so that users can create accounts and an improved posting mechanism. We would like to improve our marketing to get more people involved with Environ. For Environ to have a larger impact and influence, we need a larger community on the platform, so we plan to create accounts on existing social media platforms to get the word out about our project. We will also partner with other environmental organizations in our communities who may want to try out Environ so that people who are already involved with that group will take interest in Environ as well. This will help us gather a group that is already passionate about environmental action.

Environ is currently in the idea stage, however we are working diligently to make a difference with this unique application. Once we get Environ’s database and user interface fine-tuned, and deploy it with a solid audience we plan to quantitatively measure the impact through user engagement research studies. Once we see that Environ is reaching the optimal level of user interaction, we will add more features. 

We are utilizing the power of technology and behavioral psychology in Environ to help address environmental issues, close the climate change information disparity gap and empower users to take a united stand in helping to alleviate the climate crisis through goal setting and social media. Environ is built on the web development languages of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In the future, when Environ expands its reach and audience, we hope to integrate SQL and database languages in order to ensure that the website is secure and encrypted when it is deployed under a specific domain name. We will also devise natural language processing and sentiment machine learning algorithms to help optimize user engagement and the environmental content they interact with. We have read a plethora of Social Media user engagement studies on how social media can provide independent activists with wider audiences, inform users on pertinent issues, and help users take action. We are using this knowledge to inform and further optimize Environ’s functionality, including how the algorithm will work towards influencing users to set goals and make habitual lifestyle changes.

Environ is currently in the idea stage, however Sadie and I [Siri] are working diligently to make a difference with this unique application. Once we get Environ’s database and user interface fine tuned, and deploy it with a solid audience we plan to quantitatively measure the impact through user engagement research studies. We will analyze the amount of posts being created, comments on each post, and the amount of goals being set and reached. We will use this information, along with user survey results, to maximize community engagement by fine tuning Envron’s functionality. Once we see that Environ is reaching the optimal level of user interaction on the desktop level we will start to deploy additive features such as Environ’s machine learning algorithm for advanced recommendations of ‘leafs’ or posts. We will also deploy a mobile application in the future for easy access to Environ and to further encourage changemaking.

Once we do more market research and develop the user database more we will make a greater impact. 

Our goals for next year is to deploy our solution and measure the user feedback on the project. 

We align with number 13, or climate action in an innovative way. We will measure and indicate our progress by user base. 

We are currently limited in our technical skills, as we, as high schoolers, need help building a secure backend and database to our website. 

Siri and I worked together to code the Environ website, which we originally shared with our computer science classmates as a simple slideshow. After receiving feedback from our peers, Siri and I built the site using coding skills we learned at camp, working through many bugs along the way. Once we launched the website, it included a log-in page, a goal-tracking, and posting capability. We began spreading the word about Environ by presenting our website to our coding instructors and classmates.

We have not currently partnered with any organizations. But we have presented our solution to General Motors & Ashoka, and have received some grant money from them.

 We are under 18, our. solution address an environmental issue. We would use the seed funding to develop our website, build a secure database, and deploy the website for testing. We need more functionality on the social media aspect as we only know basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript. 

We would also improve the graphics and functionality of the social media aspects of Environ. 

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