GreeWards

Inspiration

CleanIT involves not only making algorithms and devices more environmentally friendly but also creating a climate-friendly workspace. That's why we want to develop a system that motivates employees to act more consciously throughout their daily lives. Following the principle of "carrot and stick", our system will focus on the rewards, i.e., the carrots.

What it does

GreeWards allows employees to earn Carrot-Coins through various climate-friendly engagments, e.g. by taking the train instead of driving alone; choosing a vegan dish in the canteen instead of one with meat, using more climate-friendly equipment, and much more. These Carrot-Coins can then be used to buy rewards ("GreeWard"), such as a day off, company merchandise, or even a voucher for the best Thai massage in town. The possibilities for both - engagements and GreeWards - are endless and customizable. There is also a leaderboard within the company that shows who has earned the most carrot points recently.

How we built it

After brainstorming, we first planned how our product should work, then which components we need to create for it and how they will be linked later. In particular, the team split into a backend and a frontend team. First, we focused on working with the database (Directus, later Mongo) and implemented the logic with JavaScript. Meanwhile, in the frontend we worked with Next and deployed it to the server. Finally, the frontend and backend were merged and fine-tuning was done.

Challenges we ran into

Our work on the project was not without challenges. For example, we lost a lot of valuable time, especially with the database, working first with directus and later switching to mongo because the team has more experience with it and the work was more effective then. As a result, we were not able to achieve the desired results in the given time frame.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Besides all the Challenges, we are convinced of the idea we are pursuing. GreeWards has a realistic potential to actually be applied in companies, as it is a reward system that is very attractive and appealing due to people's psyche (see above: carrot and stick). We also believe that the impact of GreeWards on a small and large scale can do a lot to realistically reduce emissions and act in a more climate-friendly way. In addition, we are particularly proud of our user interface, as it is the most completed and thoughtful part so far.

What we learned

In addition to new technical aspects and implementation techniques, we learned a lot from facing challenges and setbacks along the way to success. Also by having multiple team members from different backgrounds we can learn new things from each other. It is also beneficial by choosing the programming languages, frameworks, databases, etc. where have the most experience with to avoid obstacles.

What's next for GreeWards

In the future, GreeWards will improve the back-end of the project to move from a prototype to a web application that companies can actually use. The next step would then be to present our idea and product to these companies.