A personal trainer chatbot for the environment

Prowd offers digital coaching on how to implement better sustainability practices via its app

Spotted: Even when we are motivated, it can be difficult to consistently make sustainable choices. One problem is that we don’t tend to have information at our fingertips about the best ways to adapt our everyday lives to become more eco-friendly. Now, French startup Prowd has developed a chatbot that can help. 

The bot acts as an “ecological personal trainer” that challenges users to act sustainably, offering information about how to incorporate sustainability into other aspects of their lives. By focusing on how they can save money alongside saving the planet, Prowd pushes users into getting into the habit of acting more responsibly. 

Prowd is available for both personal and business use. The “citizen” chatbot (available on Messenger) is a digital coach that offers users fun, green “challenges” that will lower consumption. The corporate chatbot is designed to engage employees to lower the environmental footprint of their employer, and this version offers a four-week Green Challenge, which includes information and office challenges (e.g. sorting rubbish), alongside digital workshops and conferences. 

Prowd also organises in-person, do-it-yourself workshops for individuals and companies, where participants can have fun and learn skills such as how to make their own cleaning products, cosmetics and food wraps.

There are a number of innovative apps which aim to encourage people to be more environmentally aware in their everyday lives through gamification. Springwise has recently covered several, such as Seek, which gamifies learning about the environment, and Litterati, which gamifies recycling.