EcoQuest

Making Sustainability Simple & Fun

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Inspiration

We were inspired by how many people want to live sustainably but find it difficult to track their daily habits or see the real impact of their choices. As students ourselves, we saw how our peers struggled with long, boring footprint calculators that only gave a number without any real motivation. We wanted to create something fun, interactive, and practical that makes sustainability feel rewarding rather than overwhelming.

What it does

EcoQuest is an interactive ecological footprint quiz and dashboard. Users take a 16-question lifestyle quiz across categories like diet, transport, water, energy, waste, consumer habits, digital lifestyle, and community. Based on their answers, they get a percentage footprint score, personalized feedback, and actionable eco-tips. The dashboard then helps them set goals, log daily actions, track progress with graphs and streaks, earn badges, and even sync reminders directly to their Google Calendar.

How we built it

We built EcoQuest using React/Next.js for the frontend, hosted on Netlify. For visuals, we designed clean cards, charts, and progress bars with eco-friendly styling. The quiz logic was carefully structured around scoring rules (1–5 points per question) to provide fair, accurate results. We used chart libraries for graphs, Google Calendar API for syncing reminders, and structured JSON for tips and feedback. Collaboration was done through GitHub, with each team member handling features like the quiz, dashboard, eco-tips hub, and styling.

Challenges we ran into

Designing the quiz logic to be balanced and fair across all 8 categories. Making the dashboard clean but not empty, so data is easy to read. Integrating with Google Calendar for reminders required OAuth setup and handling edge cases. Time constraints: building a full ecosystem (quiz + dashboard + tips + goals) within a hackathon meant prioritizing essential features first.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a working ecological footprint calculator that gives personalized advice rather than just a score. Designing a dashboard concept that gamifies eco-living with streaks, badges, and progress rings. Setting up the eco-tips carousel with categories and actions (“Save” or “Try this”). Building everything from scratch in a short time as a team and making it visually engaging.

What we learned

How to translate sustainability into practical features (quiz logic, tips, goals). The importance of UI/UX design in making eco-habits feel approachable and fun. Technical skills in React, charting libraries, and API integration. The value of teamwork: splitting tasks effectively and merging them smoothly.

What's next for EcoQuest

1) Fully integrating the reminder system with Google Calendar. 2) Expanding the eco-tips database with region-specific advice. 3) Adding community features like leaderboards, group challenges, and shared tips. 4) Improving accessibility and making the site mobile-first for students on the go. 5)Long term: developing a mobile app version and partnering with schools to gamify sustainability at scale.

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