Inspiration
Climate change and environmental damage often feel overwhelming and abstract. We wanted to make sustainability feel personal, actionable, and motivating by turning small daily actions into something visible and rewarding.
What it does
Protect the Coast is a gamified sustainability platform that gives users a daily environmental mission. Users earn points, build streaks, track their environmental impact (CO₂, water, waste), and compete on a global leaderboard.
How we built it
We built Protect the Coast using a React frontend and a Node.js + Express backend with MongoDB. The app uses REST APIs to handle user authentication, daily challenges, streak tracking, impact aggregation, and leaderboards.
Challenges we ran into
We faced challenges integrating frontend and backend logic, managing daily state resets, preventing duplicate challenge completions, and designing a fair impact model that reflects real-world uncertainty.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully implemented daily missions, streak tracking, impact aggregation across users, and a working leaderboard—all within a limited hackathon timeframe.
What we learned
We learned how to design full-stack systems end-to-end, handle real-world edge cases, and communicate environmental impact responsibly rather than relying on arbitrary points alone.
What's next for Protect the Coast
Next, we want to expand the Impact Engine with peer-reviewed data, add location-based challenges, improve visualizations, and partner with environmental organizations for real-world verification.
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