CommonGrid

## Inspiration

Energy-saving habits are often simple: switch off unused lights, reduce unnecessary air-conditioning, and use less electricity. The difficult part is seeing the impact. When the result feels distant, motivation can disappear.

CommonGrid was inspired by the idea that sustainability should feel visible, social, and rewarding. Students can see their own savings, help their university reach shared milestones, compete through NUS hall standings, and earn rewards that feel tangible.

The core loop is simple:

[ 1\ \mathrm{kWh\ saved}=10\ \mathrm{points} ]

Individual actions contribute to a university-wide goal. When the goal is reached, rewards unlock. Students who genuinely contribute can then redeem them.

## How We Built It

CommonGrid is an Expo React Native application backed by Supabase. We built separate student and administrator experiences.

Students can:

• View electricity saved and points earned
• Track university-wide progress
• See NUS hall standings and reward tiers
• Follow their saving streak through a calendar
• Unlock achievements
• Redeem eligible rewards
• View redemption history

Administrators can:

• View platform totals
• Manage student accounts
• Simulate verified electricity savings
• Trigger automatic points and reward progression
• Manage available rewards

The current prototype uses simulated electricity records for the hackathon. In a full deployment, the same flow could receive data from IoT-enabled building meters.

## What We Learned

We learned that gamification works best when it supports a meaningful action instead of distracting from it. Points alone are not enough. Students need to understand:

• What they personally contributed
• How close the university is to its next milestone
• How their hall is performing
• Why their contribution matters
• What reward they can actually earn

We also learned the importance of making eligibility fair. Rewards are not automatically given to everyone. Hall performance determines the reward tier, while individual contribution determines who qualifies to redeem it.

## Challenges

One challenge was simplifying the product without losing its sense of progression. We intentionally focused on electricity, points, university progress, hall competition, and rewards instead of adding too many sustainability metrics.

Another challenge was connecting the interface to reliable backend behaviour. A saving record must award the correct points, update the university total, unlock rewards at the right threshold, and prevent duplicate redemptions. Supabase functions and database rules handle these actions persistently.

We also had to make the demo data feel realistic enough to show the full journey. The prototype begins near a milestone, allowing the administrator to record an additional saving and demonstrate the complete progression:

920 points → +80 points → 1,000 points → reward unlocked → reward redeemed

CommonGrid turns small electricity savings into visible progress, shared momentum, and rewards that students can genuinely earn.

Built With

• expo.dev
• supabase