KindKart

Submitting a code on Patagonia
Looking at A & F's ethics ratings

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from the United Nations’ global industry goals to create a chrome extension that makes it easier to support ethical online businesses. It's hard to know where your money goes. Ethical shopping is becoming an ever-more complicated devotion with the infinite number of online shopping options. You want to stick to your principals without breaking your budget or wasting time. We were inspired to build a chrome extension to help make ethical shopping accessible to everyone, regardless of time or budget; so that you can rest assured that your money is supporting ethical businesses.

What it does

KindKart is a chrome extension that allows users to see Ethics reports, view alternative shops, track your shopping and help you save! KindKart reports on five major pillars of ethical businesses, as well as overall commitment to ethics. It helps you find alternative shopping options that better fit your principles as a shopper. KindKart also tracks your savings and reminds you to use it for good and enhances your online shopping experience with exclusive coupons suggested to you by KindKart. KindKart also fills the following goals:

How KindKart fits in each Catagory

Decent Work and Economic Growth: KindKart rates worker’s empowerment and supplier relations to ensure that prioritizing decent work and economic growth is easy.
Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: KindKart doesn’t reject online shopping and innovation but allows them to be more ethical so that people can feel confident when supporting the industry.
Sustainable Cities and Communities: KindKart also rates the environmental sustainability of a company.
Responsible Consumption and Production: KindKart has a feature to show similar products on Ebay or Etsy which often features smaller businesses. This promotes responsible, small scale production.

How we built it

KindKart is a chrome extension built using javascript, html, and css. We used resources including firebase, pattern matching, and github. We first worked on making a promo code extension, then added a database of ethics ratings of popular stores. After that, we added an alternative website locator, as well as linked to a suggested place to donate with user’s savings. We did the testing through the browser and browser console.

Challenges we ran into

Webpage challenges:

Creating github domain name

Glitching on mobile site

Chrome extension challenges:
Getting dynamic links to work
Setting up a firebase database
Making promo codes copyable with a click
Making the alternate links recommendations
Making a larger popout window that is triggered by an online retailer’s checkout page

Accomplishments that we proud of

The way we divided up the tasks amongst all group members and how well we worked together as a team made us proud. We are also proud of how we were able to create a responsive website and functional web extension in less than 24 hours. We were able to implement many useful features in a short amount of time.

What we learned

In order to make KindKart a reality, we learned about firebase, web page design, chrome extension development, and javascript. There were a lot of obstacles - none of us had ever made a chrome extension or used firebase before. Most importantly, we learned that ethical shopping isn't an easy task and many online shoppers are not aware of where their money goes.

How to install

To install, download the zipped file on github, which can also be found on our website. After extracting, visit chrome://extensions/, making sure you’re in developer mode. Select “load unpacked” and enter the file path for the downloads. From there you should be able to manage KindKart like any other chrome extension. We plan on making KindKart more easy to download after we have the correct licensing to make it available on the chrome extension store.

What's next for KindKart

We plan on adding a local businesses function so you can support small businesses in your own community, as well as upgrading the donation feature to be more direct. We hope to include more industries to our extension’s database so consumers can depend on KindKart for all kinds of purchases.

Built With

Submitted to

SET.Hacks()
- Winner SDG Category 3 Winner - Industry

Created by

I created and designed the website and deployed it to GitHub pages. I also helped with the script and devpost submission. I learnt a lot about ethical shopping and had a great time working with my teammates.

Maryam Afshar
I helped design the website using HTML and CSS. I also created the video presentation as well as the logo for our product. I learned a-lot about creating browser extensions and had a great time working with my team!

Shahrzad Islami
I worked mostly on coding the extension using javascript, CSS, and HTML as well as linking it to the firebase database, while collaborating with team members on github.

nadine pigida
I worked on the ethics report and alternative websites features. It was my first time working with chrome extensions or using javascript, but it was worth the learning curve.

Georgia Berg