Eco Zoom

Inspiration

Greenwashing is a serious issue that impacts efforts to curtail negative environmental impacts from consumer products. Brands turn to false or misleading claims through marketing to avoid the cost and difficulty associated with making large-scale changes to their business practices while still maintaining a healthy market share.

This impacts consumer confidence in sustainability measures, reduces trust in brand claims about sustainable practices and indirectly punishes smaller brands who are trying to do the right thing.

The antidote to this problem is to provide more information to consumers before they make a purchase. This empowers them to circumvent the impact of advertising from brands and make informed decisions about which products they want to buy, supplying market pressure on brands to change their practices rather than managing their reputations.

A related problem is waste disposal at the other end of a product’s lifecycle.

The primary barriers to utilizing waste disposal services effectively are knowledge about services available and convenience of use. So we attempt to solve this issue by using AI to provide waste disposal information specific to the consumer’s location.

EcoZoom

EcoZoom is an android app where users can take a picture of an item before purchasing it and extract useful information about environmental impacts and waste disposal before they purchase the item. This places market pressure on companies to change their practices without being able to use advertising to obfuscate sustainability information. Users can also use it for products they already own to look up how to dispose of it correctly. At present the app is hardcoded to work in Melbourne but we have a technique and a strategy to allow for other Local Government Areas which simply needs more time to implement.

It also impacts decision making at the point of sale which is the most important moment in the lifecycle of any product – an unpurchased product reduces environmental impact and simultaneously affects market pressure.

Features

The main feature of EcoZoom is that you can get a product's sustainability information simply by taking a photo of the product. Once users take a photo, they will be prompted with an option to select an exact or most similar product match. Then our amazing AI expert will provide sustainability information including a disposal guide, and approximate carbon and water footprint information.

What's next for EcoZoom

Make an IOS version, web app, and browser extension to allow for use by online shoppers
Consult with experts and local governments for better and more complete sustainability and waste disposal information and possibly even create our own sustainability score that is transparently created and considers various factors covering the full cradle-to-cradle lifecycle of a product.
Build our own vision model for faster implementation and improved object detection capabilities
Integrate with a shopping list feature so consumers are encouraged to use it in the store
Enable customers to 'favourite' products in their account so they don't have to scan all options in every shop every time, rewarding brands that choose to behave more sustainably by encouraging brand loyalty

Github Links:

https://github.com/dakshAg/EcoZoom https://github.com/dakshAg/coldbrew_web https://github.com/lochie154/coldbrew_ai

References

City of Melbourne, n.d. A–Z guide to recycling and waste disposal. URL https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/residents/waste-recycling/Pages/a-z-waste-disposal.aspx (accessed 4.13.23).

de Freitas Netto, S.V., Sobral, M.F.F., Ribeiro, A.R.B., Soares, G.R. da L., 2020. Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review. Environ Sci Eur 32, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3

de Jong, M. D. T., Huluba, G., & Beldad, A. D. (2020). Different Shades of Greenwashing: Consumers’ Reactions to Environmental Lies, Half-Lies, and Organizations Taking Credit for Following Legal Obligations. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 34(1), 38–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651919874105

Doconomy, n.d. Methodology. URL https://planetloyalty.com/methodology/ (accessed 4.14.23).

Finder, n.d. Finder Green Consumer Report 2022. URL https://www.finder.com.au/finder-green-consumer-report-2022 (accessed 4.15.23)

Nielsen IQ, n.d. A ‘natural’ rise in sustainability around the world. URL https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/analysis/2019/a-natural-rise-in-sustainability-around-the-world/ (accessed 4.15.23).

Nyilasy, G., Gangadharbatla, H. & Paladino, A. Perceived Greenwashing: The Interactive Effects of Green Advertising and Corporate Environmental Performance on Consumer Reactions. J Bus Ethics 125, 693–707 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1944-3

Pandey, D., Agrawal, M., Pandey, J.S., 2011. Carbon footprint: current methods of estimation. Environ Monit Assess 178, 135–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1678-y

Sustainability Victoria, n.d. Annual waste data reports. URL https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/research-data-and-insights/waste-data/annual-waste-data-reports (accessed 15.4.23)

Wang, D., Hubacek, K., Shan, Y., Gerbens-Leenes, W., Liu, J., 2021. A Review of Water Stress and Water Footprint Accounting. Water 13, 201. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020201