Earth 2Tech: Katie Fehrenbacher
What’s going to be the viral element that gets us to cut down on our collective carbon emissions? Who’s going to deliver us the iPod of cleantech? If we knew for sure, we’d be off building it, but these 10 web sites think they have the key ingredients to motivate their users to fight global warming and cut carbon. Do you think they have what it takes? Here’s our thoughts and our list of 10 green social networks you should know:
Carbonrally: When Jason Karas thought up Carbonrally in mid-2007, his idea was to capitalize on the desire to compete. He launched the site in mid-November and after 5 months says he has almost 2,000 active users and has had 20,000 visitors. Unlike a lot of the sites out there, Carbonrally doesn’t focus on raising or donating money or using carbon calculators, instead it uses the draw of being on a team to help members focus their efforts on challenges that reduce carbon emissions.
If you’re one of those team-spirit types who always dresses up for your work’s Hawaiian Shirt Friday (or were heavy into the greek system) then this site could really resonate with you. That also makes it a really good fit for corporate customers to organize company carbon programs, and Karas tells us that the site has brought in two corporate Google teams, in Boston and Pittsburg. Corporations could also be Carbonrally’s real moneymaker, as businesses could be willing to pay for more premium subscription services. The site will need to get more viral traction to really make it big.
Zerofootprint.net: Zerofootprint is one of the startups that actually seems to have a sustainable business model. Funny that it’s also one of the few that’s a nonprofit. The Toronto-based company creates branded carbon calculators and community sites for cities and large organizations, and back in May 2007, when there weren’t that many carbon calc sites out there, the startup launched its first branded site with Toronto. We’d say one of the biggest hurdles for the site is actually that darn .net! (the dotcom and dotorg must have already been taken).
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