Ecolens

Sustainability in the palm of your hands?
Sustainability Analysis
Impact Tracker

Inspiration

We live in an era where consumer behavior has an outsized impact on global sustainability. 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to consumer activities, including producing, consuming, and disposing of goods.

However, despite growing awareness, many consumers struggle to find reliable sustainability information at the point of purchase. They don’t know if the product they’re buying is sustainable or not. That’s why we came up with EcoLens. We believe that if consumers had better access to sustainability information at the moment of decision-making, they would be more empowered to make eco-conscious choices.

What it does

EcoLens is a browser extension designed to provide sustainability information directly to shoppers as they browse e-commerce platforms like Amazon. When they go to a product page, a notification will pop up asking them if they want to learn more about the product’s sustainability performance.

Clicking ‘learn more’ will then display the following information: Sustainability Ratings: Instantly see a product’s sustainability score based on materials, environmental impact, and the company’s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings. Product Transparency: Learn about the ingredients or materials used in the product and whether they contribute to pollution, climate change, or waste. Sustainable Alternatives: If a product isn’t sustainable, EcoLens will suggest eco-friendly alternatives with similar functionality Our extension also have gamification feature where each user will adopt an ‘Earth pet.’ Feeding it with purchases will affect the pet’s health differently. This helps with tracking the number of sustainable/unsustainable purchases, therefore how much more eco-friendly a user’s purchasing habits have become by using the extension

How we built it

EcoLens is a cutting-edge browser extension developed using a powerful combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which forms the backbone of our user interface. We employed advanced web scraping techniques to gather comprehensive product information from e-commerce platforms like Amazon, extracting critical data points such as product specifications, materials, and environmental impact assessments. To analyze and categorize the sustainability of each product, we leveraged Gemini, our AI-driven data processing engine. This engine utilizes machine learning algorithms to evaluate products based on a multifaceted sustainability framework, considering factors such as materials used, lifecycle emissions, and company ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings. The processed data is then dynamically rendered in the extension's user interface, ensuring that users receive real-time sustainability insights. Also, took advantage of AWS to host a database so users can log into their own accounts to view their sustainability score. The extension features an interactive pop-up that prompts users with a notification upon landing on a product page. By clicking ‘Learn More,’ users access detailed sustainability ratings, product transparency information, and eco-friendly alternatives—all presented in a user-friendly format.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge we had was being able to scrape the product site, get a response from Gemini, and then display that result to the user in real-time with minimal delay. When we first started the whole process took about 5 seconds which is enough time for the user to lose interest. However, towards the end we were able to get the whole process down to less than a second by implementing techniques such as asynchronous data fetching to allow simultaneous operations, caching frequently accessed data to minimize redundant requests, and optimizing our scraping algorithms for faster extraction. Also, We had the issue with limitations in web scraping especially for big companies such as Amazon. To overcome this, we had to develop robust scraping algorithms that could efficiently navigate these obstacles, including implementing headless browsers and delay mechanisms to mimic human behavior

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are really proud of the fact that we were able to reduce that process time from over 5 seconds to under a second. This is very monumental since it not only enhances user satisfaction but also significantly boosts engagement with our browser extension. By achieving this level of efficiency, we can provide users with instantaneous sustainability insights at the critical moment of their purchasing decisions, thereby empowering them to make informed, eco-conscious choices without the frustration of delays. This optimization exemplifies our commitment to delivering a seamless and impactful user experience, which is crucial in driving positive change in consumer behavior towards sustainability.

What we learned

One major thing we learned was how to make a video on canva. None of us had experience with editing videos, especially with canva. So, that was a really fun experience. Also, the idea of implementing headless browsers and delay mechanisms to mimic human behavior is completely new and not something we have had experience with.

What's next for Ecolens

Expanding to more platforms: EcoLens now works primarily on Amazon. However, we’re looking to integrate with many other e-commerce platforms as well, such as eBay and Etsy. Mobile App: A mobile version of EcoLens for mobile shopping apps Gamification: Add badges, points, achievements, and more features Education: Offer a mode to help users learn more information about sustainability while browsing