By now many of us have eagerly (or not so eagerly) joined the “green” bandwagon. If you are like me then you’ve made changes to your daily routine, home, and lifestyle that could potentially have positive effects for our planet and our wallets. However, I have to be honest, going “green” isn’t always the easiest or most enjoyable experience. Many times we go out of our way to be the best global citizens possible without ever seeing the results from our efforts.

On top of that, being environmentally conscious can sometimes be costly and time consuming. Luckily there are some awesome apps that can make becoming environmentally conscious a more pleasurable and bearable experience.

Take a look at some of the most recognized and best rated “green” apps to hit the App Store and hopefully you’ll find one that best suits your needs.

1. Watt Rebate
WattRebate provides engineers and consumers constantly updated information on project rebates, grants, promotions, tax credits, financing options, appliance rebates and other incentives that are available for energy efficiency and renewable measures across 50 states, 1000s of utilities and regional agencies, including those from private companies. (iTunes Previews)

2. Ride the City 
Like other bicycle maps and routing tools, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points. Here’s how: First, Ride the City avoids roads that aren’t meant for bicycling, like highways and busy streets. Second, Ride the City steers bikes to routes that maximize bike lanes, bike paths, greenways, and other bicycle friendly streets while avoiding steep hills. (iTunes Previews)

3. Green Outlet 
Green Outlet helps you identify which of your household appliances are costing you the most to run so you can make informed decisions about your electric use. By selecting the types of appliances you use in your home and entering how many hours of use per day for each green outlet will predict what your electric bill will be for the month. (iTunes Previews)

4. Gas Buddy
Join the more than 30 million drivers that are saving money every time they fill up by using GasBuddy.
Share gas prices you see to win free gas and help others save money too! (iTunes Previews)

5. GoodGuide 
The GoodGuide app instantly reveals whether products are safe, healthy, green and socially responsible while you shop. The app’s barcode scanning feature lets you quickly access GoodGuide’s science-based health, environment and social ratings for over 170,000 products. GoodGuide’s personalization features enable you to choose the issues you care about most – like nutritional value, safe and healthy ingredients, animal welfare, human rights, climate change, energy efficiency, and more.(iTunes Previews)

We hope these apps prove to be helpful and make going green a little more exciting and worth your while. Check out more of our “Going Green” posts.

Photo by  Robert S. Donovan