by Brianna Crandall — January 28, 2015—My Open Road, a “first-of-its-kind” app for Android and iOS that measures energy conservation through a smartphone game, announced last week that it is developing a “carpool” mode to encourage ride-sharing efforts and reduce emissions.
The app may prove to be a boost for facilities managers and owners who are already encouraging staff and building tenants to follow more eco-friendly transportation practices to reach the workplace, and perhaps providing such amenities as bike racks, showers and lockers.
“For us, this was the next logical step,” said Jeff Weiss, Founder and CEO of My Open Road (MOR). “We continue to add new features and advertisers all the time,” said the former Disney Imagineer and inventor of the MOR app, which recently received the ShowStoppers Envisioneering Award for innovation and design at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The My Open Road app can detect a wide range of transportation methods, and rewards users for choosing the most energy-efficient means possible. Driving a car gives users a “Social Responsibility Score” (SRS) of 500, while walking or skateboarding rewards users with an SRS of 1000. Carpool mode will award users with a 700 SRS, which will go up depending on the number of people in the car.
The average SRS of the last ten trips are used to create a the overall “Social Responsibility Score,” which can be used to get discounts from energy-conscious retail partners whose restaurants and stores will show up in the app interface.
“We knew now was the time for a green marketing tool that rewards businesses for their conservation efforts,” added Weiss.
Wing Lam, owner of Wahoo’s Fish Taco and one of the first retailers to align with MOR, says it can keep energy conservation in the forefront of people’s minds. “Like a lot of other fans of MOR, we really think it’s a game-changer when it comes to reducing carbon emissions,” he said.
The My Open Road social energy conservation app provides discounts through a network of businesses. Its founders have created strategic alliances with Nevada’s Clean Energy Project and The Alliance to Save Energy, among others, in an effort to save half a billion tons of CO2 emissions by the year 2020.
