Brighterplanet.com Relaunches; Site Helps Consumers Take Charge of Carbon Footprint (and Save Money, Too)

The First Social-Network-Ready Web Service for Measuring, Tracking, and Sharing Environmental Efforts.

Middlebury, VT, August 13, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Brighter Planet, a clean-energy startup that helps people adopt planet-friendly practices and reap rewards while doing so, turned on their new website today. A free, fun, and easy-to-use web utility, the new www.brighterplanet.com brings some order and control to what can be a difficult process — tweaking one's lifestyle to minimize the amount of carbon pollution produced.

Brighterplanet.com — a year's work in the making and built from ground up with the assistance of web design firm Happy Cog — is also the only player in the environment niche that is both a data-driven utility and a social web application tailored to fit seamlessly into today’s web landscape. The new site will have special appeal for young professionals, working parents, and small business owners —people with very full schedules, a tendency to be active participants in online social networks, and a desire to be part of the solution to environmental challenges.

"Americans ranked lowest in National Geographic’s recent Greendex survey on consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption and citizen behavior, but they also exhibited a stronger-than-average belief that their personal actions can make a difference," said Patti Prairie, Brighter Planet's CEO. "We see opportunity in the gap between those findings. Most people want to be greener. We show them how personal choices add up, how to get started, and where to pick off low-hanging fruit."

The backbone of the new site is a smart, agile carbon calculator that doesn't require that users answer hundreds of questions to make a meaningful start on reducing/offsetting their footprint. As users begin to make real headway, they can return to the calculator, add more information about behavior and choices, and reflect accomplishments. In return they get an ever-more-precise sense of their personal carbon footprint, tailored recommendations of conservation projects, and visualizations of their progress.

The application encourages users to send in their own conservation ideas, rate tips, and share text, photos, or video demonstrating their accomplishments. It also allows users to easily find, follow, and commend actions of friends. And it rewards progress with a compelling "activity feed" that showcases one's process of learning to live carbon-free — adding a new dimension to one's presence on Twitter or Facebook.

About Brighter Planet

Brighter Planet (brighterplanet.com) helps people manage their environmental footprint. The clean-energy start-up is pioneering a new environmentalism — one that is accessible to everyone, fits one's lifestyle, and fun to share. Its engaging campaigns tap the power of social media to help people learn about emissions, conserve what they can, and offset the rest. Its carbon offset products, the Brighter Planet Visa credit and debit cards and Offsets by Brighter Planet, invest in only the most reputable climate solutions. To date, more than 100,000 people have used the company’s climate change solutions.

###
Contact
Brighter Planet
Tara McBride
(800) 442-1521
brighterplanet.com
ContactContact
Categories