Former PPCC student developed app to encourage users to cut down emissions.

A former Pikes Peak Community College student plans to launch an app this summer that he says would help users combat climate change with just a few taps on their iphone.

Ethan Thompson developed Forevergreen IOS, which incentivizes users to cut down on emissions, waste and resource use by rewarding them in a gamified setting for tasks such as taking shorter showers, buying local or lowering their thermostats.

Thompson said he formed the idea for the app after feeling disheartened and powerless against climate change. He decided to use his feelings to fuel a solution.

The 21-year-old Colorado Springs native applied his knowledge from environmental science courses and his passion for entrepreneurship to create his iphone app.

“I just kept saying to myself, ‘This isn’t okay. I don’t want to live on a planet where we have these extreme weather conditions,’” Thompson said.

“So I started to talk to some friends and family, coworkers and it turned out a lot of people have this, like, climate anxiety, this fear, this insecurity like they’re insignificant — they can’t do anything about climate change. I questioned that.”

By developing the app, Thompson hoped to provide the public with options to make a change.

With his ability to code, Thompson started to develop an app that allows users to earn points by completing various activities that improve the environment. Every 100 points a user earns

means funding for one evergreen tree would be donated to a U.S. Forest Service tree-planting program.

“Forevergreen IOS empowers, educates and rewards users to take environmentally sustainable actions in their everyday life,” Thompson said.

With over 100 tasks and habits that take 10 seconds to five minutes, Thompson said the app is designed to “democratize” the cause so everyone can participate regardless of lifestyle, income or education.

Thompson developed his idea as a participant with EPIIC Venture Attractor, a joint program between the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and the local El Pomar Institute of Innovation & Commercialization that helps “develop and strengthen” startups in Colorado Springs.

In the program, Thompson was paired with mentor Craig Swiatek, one of two directors of the Colorado chapter of the Founder Institute, to help make his app more than a tool for fighting climate change, but a business that also earns money — Forevergreen Tech. The California-based Founder Institute works to turn startups into successful businesses.

“How to grow revenue, how to make it profitable, marketing ... we’re on the business side,” Swiatek said. “I’ve got experience growing either small or innovative companies or products.”

For Thompson’s business, that meant figuring out the best business model for the app. Forevergreen IOS will be a free app that runs on advertising revenue but can be upgraded to a premium version to eliminate the ads.

The app is currently in its Beta testing phase, in which the app is released to a select group of people to give feedback before it is officially released.

To dedicate himself to getting Forevergreen Tech running, Thompson dropped out of community college. He plans, however, to transfer to UCCS next fall and work toward receiving a Bachelor of Innovation degree from the school.

Thompson said he’s always been curious about the world around him.

In high school, his curiosity inspired him to tag and track his neighborhood squirrels to learn about their migration patterns. Later, it inspired him to try and grow glow-inthe-dark plants in his basement to test a hypothesis about replacing street lamps.

So when he discussed his ideas for launching the app with his high school mentor, Nathan Gorsch, principal at Village High School in Colorado Springs, Gorsch wasn’t surprised. The new Academy School District 20 high school works with highly motivated students.

“I knew that someday, he would do something awesome,” Gorsch said. “Just had no idea what it was going to be.”