Photo by ja ma on Unsplash
While flying to Asia and lamenting how much meat is being consumed around the world, I had an idea… One way to promote vegetarianism is to make it a personal challenge. People love challenging themselves. The reward comes in the form of that feeling of accomplishment we all crave.
Personal Motivation:
I am writing this because I’ve been cutting down on my meat consumption. I’m not a full vegetarian. That’s too hard for me. But I’ve reduced my meat intake by approximately 80%, and it has been a great experience.
I took this step for three basic reasons: (1) It’s healthier for me. (2) It reduces greenhouse gas emissions. (3) It saves animals from suffering in our factory farms.
I’d like to encourage more people to decrease the amount of meat they consume. So if any aspiring entrepreneur or coder wants to take this idea and run with it, I’d be thrilled. The idea is all yours!
Concept:
Here’s the concept in a nutshell: gamify the experience of becoming a vegetarian. Release a simple app that allows users to track their progress towards becoming a vegetarian or vegan.
User Experience:
Every time you have a meal, if you don’t eat meat, you tap the app, and it marks it down. If you eat 2 out of 3 veggie meals in a single day, it counts as a Partial Veggie Day. If you eat 3 out of 3 veggie meals, it counts as a Full Veggie Day.
The app not only tracks your progress but also provides tips and eating tips and recipes to help you progress. It also lets you know how your actions are benefiting the planet. Based on the average person’s consumption of meat per meal, it lets you see stats on how you are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving water resources, freeing up land for other agricultural uses, saving animals, and improving your health.
This app is like a personal fitness tracker, except that it not only shows your personal progress but the cumulative impact you are having on the environment and the number of animal lives you have saved.
Additional Features:
The app will show you the combined impact of all your friends on the environment and animal welfare. In addition, friends can allow other friends to see their progress, creating a sense of peer pressure. Studies have shown that nothing beats peer pressure in getting people to take action.
You can also view the progress of the entire community of users. Imagine millions of users around the world all contributing. In this way, as the app grows, you can feel connected to a bigger movement that is making a sizable contribution towards creating a healthier planet.
By inviting your friends, you can amplify your personal contribution. The app will reward you for each new friend you recruit. There can also be leader boards. Every time you get a friend to join, you not only get credit for your friend’s contribution but you get partial credit for the friends your friend invites. This can boost you in the overall rankings, transforming you into a Green Superstar and creating a fun global competition.
The Goal:
The goal is to build a deep community that takes action together, feels connected, and shares a collective ownership in something bigger and more powerful than any individual can achieve acting alone.
