Ecoviu, a collaborative application to contribute to environmental care

Climate change is upon us. You don't have to read the news to realize it: temperatures are breaking historical records and flames are ravaging our forests and towns. But let's not be alarmist. We can still remedy this situation if each of us does our part with initiatives like Ecoviu.

Three young people from Barcelona have launched this free mobile application that facilitates citizen mobilization in tasks related to environmental preservation, through a calendar that establishes all the actions and social initiatives scheduled in Barcelona and its metropolitan area.

"We are nature lovers, we practice outdoor sports and we wanted to contribute as much as possible to making this planet a more sustainable place, but we didn't know where to turn," say its founders. Faced with this situation, the three entrepreneurs took advantage of the lack of activity during the confinement period to pool their knowledge and launch Ecoviu. Pau Torres is an expert in programming and has developed the app's interface, while Òscar Ratera understands e-commerce and Marc Jiménez has experience in organizing events.

Initially, they carried out an intense search for all those entities in the province of Barcelona that look after the well-being of the environment and invited them to participate in their upcoming activities. Currently, they have the collaboration of Espigoladors, ADENC or WWF, among other groups, but they also receive daily proposals from their users. And their main purpose is to create a large cooperation network between citizens and organizations to promote the active fight against climate change.

Until now, the development of Ecoviu has depended on the own resources of its three founders, but with the arrival of the new academic year, they hope to be able to generate a business model that makes the application sustainable. "We have left our jobs to dedicate ourselves entirely to this project," says Jiménez. "In September we will monetize some activities, charging a small commission for each ticket sold within the application. In the long term, we also hope to receive private funding," they add.

Recently, they organized a waste collection at Bogatell beach, through the Rescue Ocean project, with the participation of about twenty volunteers and 112 kilos of trash collected between the breakwaters of the Barcelona coast. But their work does not end here. The application also has a specific section that brings together timeless articles on environmental education and which they will expand in the coming weeks with multimedia content on specific topics, such as sustainable fashion or responsible architecture.

Among their future plans is the expansion of their activity radar beyond Barcelona and its surroundings. Within six months to a year, they have set out to reach the rest of the provinces of Catalonia, provided they are reinforced by a certain number of users. "We want to grow organically, without rushing," they conclude.