4 Ways Mobile Apps Are Helping Enterprises Become Greener and More Sustainable

The technology economy is being actively nurtured with global sustainable actions. Digital transformation strategies, skewed to being environment-friendly are becoming ubiquitous as one of the defenses against environmental degradation. With governments already finding various ways to reward a sustainable business model, it is only a matter of time, the encouragement turns into a regulatory obligation. According to research, businesses can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7bn metric tons of CO2 equivalent a year or 60% of total emission cuts pledged in Paris by NDC by 2030.

Thankfully, the digital experience stalwarts have picked up the pace in devising planet-friendly ways for digital transformation initiatives. In this blog, we speak on how appropriately equipped mobile app development companies can help enterprises build sustainable apps that can not only strengthen their business prospects but give their cause universal, governmental, and public support. Let us start by looking at how being digitally equipped with mobile apps opens the world up to a number of opportunities to capitalize on for a sustainable business model. Here is how:

Access to a user database for awareness

With a mobile app at hand, enterprises have direct access to a repository of users that can be directly summoned, informed, and instructed on global sustainable practices. This information can range from recycling data of the product residuals to injecting environmental awareness into general public consensus. According to research, 76% of US consumers expect companies to take action against climate change. So the impact of such an initiative on a company’s growth prospects is quite imminent.  

Government-backed Apps for the Environment

Government, as a part of green development goals, can get its hands on customized environment-critical apps. Apps for letting people monitor their own carbon footprints and rewarding them for reaching certain levels can be a significant breakthrough in making individual progress towards a sustainable planet. Another app idea can be a waste recycling app that provides users information on sorting domestic wastes according to their biological properties and decomposition needs if any and dropping them off at the nearest recycling facilities.

Going Paperless

Mobile apps can considerably help enterprises in reducing their paper consumption for billing, documenting, and other purposes. With Digi lockers and other cloud solutions built in a mobile app for safe storage, enterprises can access and store them on the go and fulfill sustainability goals in tandem. Moreover, technologies like OCR, IDP, etc on mobile devices can help enterprises fuel a rapid digitalization of already existing offline operations and data.

Reduction in traveling emissions 

Mobile apps help digitalize most of the enterprise-wide operations including customer onboarding, store visits for product benchmarking, interviewing rounds for staff hiring, etc. This reduction directly helps reduce emissions from traveling and hence helps contribute to a sustainable green economy. Moreover, with pandemics pushing people to work remotely, mobile-based collaboration tools can help enhance productivity and minimize communication costs. 

Best Practices for Sustainable App Development

Going for a green hosting provider: Hosting a website generates around the same carbon footprint per 10,000 visitors as driving 5,000 miles in a new car.  Your mobile app development partner can help you find a green hosting provider, such as PlanetHoster. PlanetHoster uses hydroelectricity and harbors energy-efficient servers at their server locations.

Cache Policy: Having a reliable cache policy can help ensure that the server will send data only when it is critically needed, such as when the app is not updated. When the server responds, it sends only the headers and not the body. Also, reducing data transfer by compressing the data and residing it closer to the users, via CDN services can help reduce the global server bandwidth usage and minimize costs.

Optimizing app resources: A provision to review and delete unused files in media can help streamline memory usage. It is advisable to prefer weightless vector or jpeg images in cases where the alpha channel isn’t needed. Compressing images and removing useless metadata such as software data, geolocation, etc. is another wise exercise to implement in your mobile apps. For non-vector images, the size of the assets can be changed according to the app’s capability. Resizing assets can make them weigh lesser and load quicker on devices.

Lazy Loading Practice: It is a wise practice to implement lazy loading, not just from a Green but cost optimization POV. By loading resources only when needed on your app, you're not only minimizing the data transferred but improving the speed, responsiveness, and overall CX of your app.

Technologies for Sustainability Analysis

Today, technologies like artificial intelligence, Big Data, and IoT have been the key to exhaustive data analysis aimed at decision-making in areas like climate, air, and water, biodiversity conservation, disaster resilience, and more. 

Assisted intelligence systems can review patterns across historical data, including social media to help people do tasks quickly and effectively using the information gathered. Techniques like deep learning, natural language processing, anomaly detection, etc. can reveal indicators of natural disasters and other weather events. AI-enabled simulators can examine scenarios that surround climate policy and emissions like greenhouse gases.

Conclusion

As we progress technologically, we come across more fields that can be invested in for a sustainable ecosystem. With widely available resources and technology, it is our duty to safeguard and protect the environment while twinning it with technology we are in continuous need of. To begin your bit for protecting the environment while driving growth, get in touch with a mobile application development company. 

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