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A student has launched a brand-new sustainability app, after securing funding from her university.

Carolina Furtado is currently completing her Master’s in Computer Sciences at the ³ÉÈËBÕ¾, having already graduated in Business and Finance, also from Worcester.

Her app, GreenUp, is designed to help university leaders gauge sustainability awareness among students, and has scope for use in a variety of educational and business settings.

“Students download the app, and then they take a series of quizzes,” explained Carolina. “Once they’ve finished, they’ll get a score, and that data is then shared with the management of the institution, so they can see what level of knowledge their students have on various areas of sustainability.”

She added: “This data will help leaders understand where their students are in terms of their knowledge and understanding of sustainability, which will help them make informed decisions.”

The quizzes are all based around the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which focus on areas such as eradicating poverty and hunger, and promoting sustainable cities and communities.

The app was funded by a grant of £2,000 from the ³ÉÈËBÕ¾ after Carolina’s lecturers saw her pitch for funding.

Dr Helen Watts, Deputy Head of Worcester Business School at the ³ÉÈËBÕ¾, said: “Carolina’s app shows an innovative approach to promoting sustainability through gamification and a sophisticated app design that required funding to develop,”

Dr Watts added: “The University is committed to delivering opportunities for students to engage with sustainability and enterprise, so the suggestion that we should fund the development of GreenUp came very easily.”

Carolina said: “I’d like to see this rolled out to other universities. I’ve already had interest from a college in the region, and I’ve spoken to business leaders who are interested in using it to gauge their teams’ understanding of sustainability as well.”

A lifelong advocate of sustainable practices, Carolina said she already has plans for the app to grow: “The plan is to bring in new features to allow students to feedback directly to their tutors, we’re going to introduce an interactive game for users to play, and we’re exploring the possibilities for expanding into virtual reality as well.”