Ecozon

Inspiration

We realized millions of people browse Amazon daily without knowing about sustainable alternatives. The barrier isn't desire-it's discovery. Ecozon removes friction from eco-conscious shopping by surfacing greener choices in real-time.

What it does

Ecozon is a Chrome extension that detects products on Amazon and instantly recommends sustainable alternatives with eco-scores and estimated carbon reduction percentages. It runs a hybrid search system: live Amazon scraping (when available) backed by curated fallback data, ensuring it always returns meaningful results.

How we built it

We created a modular architecture with independent components: a parser (detects product category and traits), a scoring engine (calculates eco-ratings based on weighted keywords), a search query builder, and a matcher that orchestrates the recommendation pipeline. We paired this with a curated dataset of 36 verified eco-friendly products across categories like soap, shampoo, and detergent—serving as our safety net when live search fails.

Challenges we ran into

Browser CORS policies block Amazon scraping, forcing us to build a multi-layer fallback system. Sustainability scoring is subjective and prone to greenwashing, so we chose transparency-showing users the reasoning behind each score. Accurate category detection from messy Amazon titles required multi-trait extraction instead of single classification. We also had to balance performance with feature scope, lazy-loading data only when needed.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a resilient system that never fails silently. Creating a transparent scoring model that users can understand and trust. Designing a clean, minimal UI that makes sustainable shopping effortless. Proving that even with browser constraints, you can deliver meaningful recommendations.

What we learned

Fallbacks beat perfection. Showing relative impact (e.g., "50% lower carbon") resonates more than abstract scores. Transparency and honest communication about data limitations build user trust.

What's next for Ecozon

Real-time carbon footprint APIs instead of keyword heuristics. User feedback and ratings to continuously improve recommendations. Expansion beyond Amazon to other retailers. Support for more product categories and eco-certifications. Browser sync across devices so users' recommendations follow them.

Built With

• css3
• html5
• javascript
• manifest
• node.js