The Good Goal | Gamified sustainability app with impact measurement

What we built

A habits app, an impact engine and a corporate layer on the same foundation.

Weekly challenges

Sustainable actions proposed by category and tuned to each user's level.

Points system

Achievable weekly goals, visible progress and reinforcement of consistency.

Impact calculator

Every action converted into CO2, water and waste saved, on a scientific basis.

Initial questionnaire

Diagnosis of involvement across waste, consumption and transport.

Corporate version

Coopetition between employees and aggregated metrics for the organisation.

iOS and Android app

Product published on both platforms since the June 2021 launch.

Context and need

Almost everyone wants to behave more sustainably and almost no one knows whether what they do makes any difference. How much does reusing a bottle actually save? What about skipping a car trip? Without reliable data, individual sustainability stays in the realm of intuition and good will.

The Good Goal was born to close that gap on two fronts at once: people who want to improve their habits, and organisations that need to involve employees in their ESG strategy and report credible indicators in the non-financial statements increasingly demanded by regulation.

The problem to solve

The first challenge was about product: sustainability is boring when framed as an obligation. It had to become a meaningful game — weekly challenges tuned to each person's level of involvement, points, visible progress — without falling into empty gamification that gets abandoned in two weeks.

The second was rigour. The app calculates CO2, water and waste savings for each action based on meta-studies from the scientific community, and those numbers end up in corporate reports. The system had to map every action to its impact factor, accumulate results per user and per organisation, and hold those figures without ambiguity.

The third was time: an early-stage startup needs to launch, measure and correct. Development had to move at the pace of the business, not the other way around.

The solution built by Digitup

The product was structured around three action areas — waste, consumption and transport — and an initial questionnaire that places each user at their level of environmental involvement. From there, the app proposes an achievable weekly points goal: not so low it feels irrelevant, not so high it gets abandoned.

On top of that mechanic we built the measurement layer: every sustainable action carries an impact factor translated into kilos of CO2 avoided, litres of water saved and kilos of waste prevented. That data feeds individual progress and, in the corporate version, the organisation's impact dashboards.

For companies we developed the “coopetition” logic: employees compete to be the most sustainable while pursuing a shared savings goal, a format that turns a sustainability policy into a team activity with visible results.

Project summary

The Good Goal is a Spanish startup founded by three entrepreneurs — Nerea Mendinueta, Nadia de la Fuente and Nicole Flamarique — who met during the pandemic and built the project remotely from different cities. Their product: a gamified app to improve sustainable habits and measure the real impact of every action.

Digitup collaborated on building the product in its early stage, when a startup needs to reach the market fast and with enough quality for the first impression to count. The app launched in June 2021 on iOS and Android.

The product on screen

Illustration of Earth showing positive-impact metrics: waste not generated, water saved and CO2 not emitted.

Screenshots of The Good Goal mobile app showing sections that help users keep sustainable habits and record their environmental impact.

Illustrations representing the impact of sustainable actions by The Good Goal users.

Environmental impact screen in The Good Goal app, showing water saved, CO2 not emitted and waste not generated.

Key features

User sign-up and profile
Environmental involvement questionnaire
Weekly challenges on waste, consumption and transport
Logging of sustainable actions
Personalised points and weekly goals
CO2, water and waste savings calculation
Progress and habit tracking
Organisation mode with a shared goal
Aggregated metrics for reporting
App Store and Google Play release

How we worked

Remote work with the founding team
Defining categories and actions
Points model and weekly goals
Integrating impact factors
Mobile app development
iOS and Android launch
Iteration based on real usage
Extension to the corporate product

Architecture and technology

The architecture revolves around a data model that is easy to explain and hard to get right: actions, categories, impact factors, points and totals per user and per organisation. Everything else — screens, challenges, rankings — is a view on that foundation.

Development was scoped as a mobile app for iOS and Android with its own backend for users, actions and impact calculation, ready to aggregate results per company without duplicating the individual product's logic. A well-built MVP approach: fast to launch, with room to grow into the corporate version.

Mobile app iOS Android Backend APIs Database Impact model Gamification Analytics

Project impact

In its first year the startup reported more than 60,000 downloads and over 18,000 active users, and its website showed public counters of community impact: thousands of kilos of waste saved, millions of litres of water preserved, hundreds of thousands of kilos of CO2 avoided and hundreds of thousands of sustainable actions logged.

The Good Goal has been recognised in entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation programmes and has worked with universities, foundations and companies. For Digitup, the case shows how well-scoped early-stage development lets a startup validate its thesis and grow towards the B2B market.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Good Goal?

The Good Goal is a Spanish sustainability app that proposes weekly challenges on waste, consumption and transport, awards points for each action and calculates the positive impact on CO2, water and waste, for both individuals and organisations.

What did Digitup do on the project?

Digitup Studio collaborated on the early-stage build: the challenges and points mechanic, action logging, the impact calculation layer and the iOS and Android mobile app the startup launched with.

How is the impact of each action calculated?

Every sustainable action carries an impact factor based on meta-studies from the scientific community, translated into kilos of CO2 avoided, litres of water saved and kilos of waste prevented, accumulated per user and per organisation.

Is it useful for companies with an ESG strategy?

Yes. The corporate version engages employees through challenges and coopetition and aggregates impact metrics companies can use in internal culture and sustainability reporting.

Does Digitup work with early-stage startups?

Yes. Digitup Studio supports startups from MVP onwards: we define the minimum scope that validates the business thesis, build it quickly and leave the architecture ready to scale when the first clients arrive.