Towards SMART apps SAVing the Environment

SMARTSAVE, Towards SMART apps SAVing the Environment, will explore the use of smart applications and social media to encourage each individual to be more aware of his/her own responsibility for climate change and to guide him/her towards a more climate-fr iendly behaviour. European research has shown that people want to take actions and that they recognize the need to take responsibility for their contribution to climate change (EU commission,2008). This intention to behave more climate-friendly, needs to be reinforced and supported across different situational contexts, in order to engender a positive behaviour (Manning,2008). SMARTSAVE will contribute to the new climate research programme by developing applications encouraging individuals to change their behaviour and to care more for benefit for the environment than for their own interest. Each individual will be able to reflect on his own impact on the environment through personal data and results provided by one or several applications. The developmen t of innovative technologies will make it possible in the future to register personal data from several sources through secured personalized functions. The applications will provide real time, cumulative and long term calculation of the impact that each i ndividual has on the environment. Individuals will eventually share their own results through social media platforms with friends, family or with the rest of the world. Peer pressure and competitions should initiate new sustainable behaviour and individua ls will join groups taking positive actions for the environment. The contact with people who have a sustainable behaviour will increase the likelihood that other people will pick up that behaviour (Manning,2008). SMARTSAVE intends to explore new perspecti ves by organising a workshop with experts from different disciplines. The participants of the workshop will have the opportunity to develop a project concept to be submitted at the main call in the summer of 2013.