For those looking for a change of pace from Angry Birds and Candy Crush, there’s a new Facebook app on the market with a sustainability twist: GreenYrLife.
Developed by iThentic.com, this app provides a range of features to keep you entertained while getting educated. Articles, videos, addictive games, and quizzes each reward your knowledge of how to best reduce, reuse and recycle. The company’s tagline summarizes it best: The more you play, the greener you get.
The heart of GreenYrLife is the ToDoList, which provides a series of activities for users to complete and in turn earn green currency. Whether you read an article from Mother Nature Network or design your own house with eco-friendly features, you’ll advance through the game, which incorporates many of the features of popular online applications – with a green spin. Think of the ToDoList as your key to unlocking additional GreenYrLife content, while making your day-to-day life greener.
Perhaps the most compelling part of the GreenYrLife application is the MyGreenSpace feature. By completing a game, reading an article or viewing a green video users earn points, known as GreenChange. GreenChange is used to upgrade all the rooms of your MyGreenSpace house (think a green version of Sim City), which starts out with mostly old and not-so-green features, like incandescent lighting. Making upgrades earns you badges and achievements, and also lets you tout your achievements to Facebook friends and potentially connect with new, like-minded friends.
You always have the option of buying additional GreenChange to expedite your improvements. A portion of the proceeds from GreenYrLife are donated to support the David Suzuki Foundation, which is a Canadian-based organization focused on environmental conservation.
Interested in the apps’ videos? GreenYrLife users can watch ‘The Dirt on Green: In NYC’ hosted by Christie Nicholson, ‘GreenTips’ hosted by Earth Dr. Reese Halter, as well as other informative videos aimed at greening your lifestyle.
Like games? Paddle Boat Picnic and Retrieve Recycle Reuse offer two addictive GreenGames at launch. In the former, you’re the driver of a paddleboat picking up litter and rescuing trapped fish from the ocean while battling the current and the clock, addressing the issue of marine debris. The latter is a take on the stuffed animal claw game, where you’re reaching for litter that is sorted as yard waste or recyclables.
One thing that’s certain about GreenYrLife is you won’t run out of things to do — like preserving the planet, there’s always more to be done. The ToDoList contains a countdown until new activities are available, meaning you’ll always have a reason to come back later for more.
While there are plenty of Facebook applications targeting environmental content, most of them are focused on education or personal enrichment, as opposed to keeping you entertained and building a green community — this one does both. Killing time on your cellphone has never looked so green.