I built an Earth Day app around Malaysian daily habits

Leonal Sigar (Leo) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:05:03 +0000

What I Built

I built EcoHabit.my, a lightweight Earth Day web app that turns climate intent into small, realistic actions people can actually do today.

The starting point was simple: a lot of eco apps feel interchangeable. They talk about sustainability in broad global language, but they are not grounded in the way people actually move, eat, buy takeaway, or use energy in Malaysia.

So instead of building another carbon calculator, I built a low-friction daily action picker with local context and globally readable English.

Some of the actions are deliberately specific:

take LRT/MRT instead of solo Grab
tapau lunch in your own bekas
bring a tumbler for kopi or teh
carry a reusable bag for a pasar run
set the AC to 25°C instead of overcooling the room

The app includes:

a welcome modal so first-time visitors do not hit an empty state
a feed of practical actions with category filters and local nouns
a lightweight personalized prompt so users can describe their situation and get a realistic next move
points and streak tracking
an anonymous community pledge wall with seeded entries
a poster-style share card with a QR code back to the live app

Everything runs client-side with localStorage, so there is no login, database, or setup friction.

Demo

Live app: EcoHabit.my

Video walkthrough: Watch the demo video

Happy path:

Open the app and dismiss the welcome modal
Use the personalized prompt or browse the action feed
Complete 2-3 actions
Add a pledge to the community wall
End on the share card and QR-enabled export

Code

GitHub repo: EcoHabit.my-Earth-Day-MVP

Built with:

React
TypeScript
Vite
plain CSS

I kept the stack intentionally small because this was built as a fast challenge MVP and needed to stay reliable during demo time.

How I Built It

I optimized for clarity, speed, and shareability over technical breadth.

Some of the most important decisions were:

keep the app frontend-only so nothing can fail on auth, database setup, or external APIs
seed both actions and community pledges so the experience feels alive immediately
treat impact as indicative, not scientific
design around Malaysian daily habits, while keeping the UI understandable to global judges
make the share card part of the product itself, not just a screenshot afterthought

The hardest problem was balancing local identity with legibility. I wanted the product to feel recognizably Malaysian without making international readers feel locked out. That is why the interface stays in English, but local terms like tapau, kopitiam, pasar, and TNB are embedded in context rather than dropped in unexplained.

Prize Categories

I am submitting this as an overall challenge entry and not targeting a sponsor-specific category.

Closing Thought

The question behind this project was:

How do you make climate action feel closer, lighter, and more locally real?

EcoHabit.my is my attempt at that answer: small choices, local context, and momentum over perfection.