EarthBuddy

Tired of wondering which brands care about the planet? EarthBuddy is a Chrome extension that shows real-time sustainability scores while you shop online—so you can make greener and informed choices.

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Inspiration

Consumers today are increasingly eco-conscious, yet they lack access to real-time, trusted sustainability insights while shopping online. We were inspired to build EarthBuddy to bridge that gap - surfacing ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data right at the point of decision, so users can shop sustainably without switching platforms or doing extra research.

What it does

EarthBuddy is a Chrome extension that:

  • Automatically detects the brand you're browsing
  • Displays the brand's color-coded ESG Risk Score (from Yahoo Finance)
  • Suggests 1-3 alternative brands with better ESG performance
  • Shows company logos and links to homepages for transparency
  • Pulls real-time recommendations using Google Gemini API

How we built it

  • Frontend: React + TypeScript, styled with TailwindCSS, built as a Chrome extension
  • Backend: Flask API hosted on Render, connected to Gemini for recommendations
  • APIs Used:
    • Google Gemini (brand matching + natural language)
    • yFinance (ESG data)
    • Brandfetch (logo rendering)

Challenges we ran into

  • Mapping ticker symbols to brands reliably (many don’t align cleanly)
  • Gemini sometimes returns incomplete JSON — required validation + parsing
  • Some brands lack ESG data or homepage info, requiring graceful fallbacks
  • Scaling APIs for speed and response quality under browser extension constraints

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Created a seamless browser UX with real-time ESG feedback
  • Integrated 3 external APIs reliably
  • Designed a system that works across most major shopping domains
  • Made sustainability info digestible and accessible in < 3 seconds

What we learned

  • How to integrate LLMs (Gemini) with structured APIs (yFinance)
  • Building Chrome extensions with secure backend connections
  • Handling dynamic data reliability (e.g. missing logos or tickers)
  • Keeping UI clean and functional under tight space constraints

What's next for EarthBuddy

  • Support for Firefox and Safari extensions
  • Manual search bar for comparing brands outside shopping context
  • ESG trend tracking and score explanations over time
  • Local caching to reduce repeated API calls
  • User account to track "eco savings" from better choices to gamify EarthBuddy

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