Making eco-friendly spaces at homes now at fingertips

Manama : A group of Bahrain-based students are using their tech skills to help residents turn their homes into “eco-friendly spaces.”

Malik Jehangir Riaz, Muhammad Hamza Zubair and Hamad Mohammed Ali created an award-winning mobile app, GreenAid, to help residents plan and design their home in an eco-friendly manner.  

GreenAid has won an award in the innovation category at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Bahrain.  The three founders, known by the team name, ‘Team Spectra,’ have been selected to compete in the regional level of the competition in Cairo later this month. 

In an interview with DT News, Team Spectra elaborated on how their application works for a better future.  

What made you so passionate about promoting eco-friendliness? 

There are certain problems that affect the world on daily basis and this has resulted in a dramatic increase of toxins in the air we breathe. People are extremely enthusiastic to contribute for a solution to this problem, but don’t know where to start. 

By being eco-friendly, one can guarantee a pure environment, and this leads to better health, better surroundings as well as lower negative impact on the globe.

Little drops of water form the mighty ocean; our app is one of those drops.

How did you get the idea to create an app for it?

People generally procrastinate when they come across this issue. They don’t immediately rush to flower shops and nurseries to buy plants and flowers. Therefore, the first step was to make people aware that there are plants that can absorb harmful toxins, whether they choose to believes it or not. The problem is real but people don’t take it seriously, and those who do, don’t know the starting line.

How exactly does one turn their work and home spaces into eco-friendly environments? 

Plants aid in creating an eco-friendly environment. For example, imagine a person in an office surrounded by files, cupboards, equipment etc. By the end of the day, the person is highly tired and frustrated. This is mainly due to the harmful toxins present in the office. Adding a plant/ flowers help to cope with the problem. They absorb the toxins and purify the environment. This generates an eco-friendly environment. 

How does GreenAid function?

Now, if you are wondering where to keep the plants, GreenAid is here to help you. The users can click a picture of the place that they want to design with the plants.  Customisation and designing part lets users to adjust their favourite plants/ flowers over the picture. Finally the order gets sent to a nearby supplier. 

Everything is performed on a smart phone. There are other functions as well, that are yet to be revealed. 

Are you confident of winning at Cairo? 

We are fully confident that we would bring pride to the nation by winning the Pan Arab semifinals at Cairo. And finally win the World Wide finals too.