EnvironMap

Inspiration

If given the opportunity and the resources, many people would choose to live a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle. However, sustainable and eco-friendly locations in one’s community aren’t as well-known or advertised as fast food chains and superstores. As a result, it can be difficult—or even inconvenient—for many to live a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle.

We created EnvironMap to highlight eco-friendly locations in your surrounding community. The app is purposely tailored towards fulfilling your daily needs, wants, and activities such as food, transportation, shopping, and recreation. The app promotes local and small businesses who are changing the world with sustainable practices. EnvironMap brings a community together towards an eco-friendly future.

What it does

EvironMap is a web app that promotes sustainable practices in daily life. On the main screen of the app, users can input their current location to get a list of eco-friendly shops, restaurants, and activities by clicking on certain categories. The left side of the app displays four main subcategories: Food, Shopping, Transportation, and Recreation. Within these main categories are subcategories. In Food, there is a Restaurants subcategory. For Shopping, there are Second Hand Stores. For Transportation, there are Bus Stops, Bike Stores, and Train Stations. For Recreation, there are Parks, Campgrounds, and Hiking Trails. When clicking on these subcategories, a list of places pertaining to that subcategory will appear on the right-hand side of the screen with the place name and address, and the places will also be marked on the map.

How we built it

We developed EnvironMap using Python and the following frameworks: Tkinter, CustomTkinter, GoogleMaps, and IpRegistry. The web application was developed using PyCharm software with the use of GitHub for collaboration between our team members.

Challenges we ran into

We have not had experience with the GoogleMaps API before. We had some challenges with learning how to operate GoogleMaps and parse data received from the library functions. Additionally, we learned how to use API keys so we could access and operate GoogleMaps and IpRegistry. Furthermore, we used CustomTkinter for the first time, which provides more design and stylistic elements. We had some trouble at first understanding how to use CustomTkinter but we soon learned how to operate it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of how we used Google Maps to create a functioning location filter and finder, which we initially thought would be difficult to implement in a nine-hour hackathon span. We are also proud of this one of our most impactful projects yet, being able to work on a world wide scale.

What we learned

During the development of EnvironMaps, we learned how abundant opportunities are for sustainable and eco-friendly practices. Sustainable actions can be found and easily done in our everyday lives, starting from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and the type of transportation we take. Eco-friendly practices can be applied with small changes to daily lifestyle to make a huge impact on environmental sustainability. During the development of EnvironMap, we also learned how to use CustomTkinter, GoogleMaps, IpRegistry, and API keys.

What's next for EnvironMap

We would like to implement a radius slide bar that would increase or decrease the search radius of sustainable places. Additionally, new changes to EnvironMap would include more categories and subcategories, the ability to click on locations on the map to receive more information on them, as well as display the distance and directions to specific locations on the right side bar. To further bring the community together with EnvironMap, we would also like to create an option for users to create eco-friendly community events at locations that others can sign up for to promote sustainable practices and activities.