Over the last fewdecades, the adoption of innovative technologies in both households and businesses has brought immense benefits to human beings, such as increased productivity, improved entertainment and communication, and much more. Both developed and developing countries are making significant efforts to promote the adoption of technological devices so as to achieve economic growth and development, improved public health and standard of living. However, the increasing use of these technologies has also resulted in the deterioration of the relationship between technology and the natural environment. The growing number of electrical and electronic devices present in both homes and offices are contributing to the continuous increase in energy consumption both in Mauritius and throughout theworld. The generation of electricity is known to be a key cause of climate change due to the use of non-renewable sources such as coal and oil which release carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. The growth of electronic devices has also resulted in an increase of electronic waste, which is also detrimental to the human health and the environment. As such, in order to mitigate the global climate change problems being faced, it has become important for human beings to take actions to reduce the risks and damages to the environment also caused by electronic devices. One possible solution is to use ICT based mitigation techniques to help human beings reduce their
environmental impacts during the use of electronic devices. Studies have showed that a lack of knowledge is often considered as a key barrier to the adoption of environmentally sustainable actions. One emerging technology that has shown to foster engagement, improve understanding and provide a unique learning experience is Augmented Reality. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of using Augmented Reality to improve awareness on green consumption of electronic devices. To achieve this, an Augmented Realitymobile applicationwas developed to help individuals learn and understand their electricity consumption from various electrical devices being used at home and offices. The application also provides a means for end users to track the amount of energy consumed by different devices, and provided appropriate tips and best practices to educate users on green practices. Additionally, the application also contained a quiz feature to assess the knowledge of the users. Following evaluation, results confirmed the hypothesis of the research project and indicated a positive correlation between Augmented Reality and learning enhancement on green practices. This was denoted by an improvement of 39.8% in test results conducted after utilization of the implemented prototype.
