Yahoo! announced two initiatives today to become, in their words, the "go-to resource for all topics green." That's green as in, environmentally friendly. The first is a competition called Be a Better Planet to find the most eco-friendly city in America. The prize? Carbon credits and a fleet of hybrid taxis. Participants can also earn free compact fluorescent light bulbs for themselves.
More notably, Yahoo! is launching Yahoo! Green, a climate change information portal that includes news, information, and guides to help people cut their carbon emissions and do other things to become more "green."
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One of the niftiest features of the site is the Take Action page, which allows users to create their own carbon cutting plan. Users can drag and drop CO2-lowering actions onto their plan -- things like "Change the porch-light to a compact fluorescent" or "Install low-flow shower heads" -- and instantly get a report about how many tons of carbon they'll cut at a result.
Yahoo! is actually putting its money where its mouth it, pledging last month to become carbon neutral by the end of 2007 -- no small feat for an 11,000 employee company. While we're in the carbon-cutting mood, since it's been said that a black web page consumes less energy than a white one, perhaps a redesign of Yahoo! in order? Doubtful, but though some cynics question the motives behind big companies pledging to go green, affecting positive environmental change will likely do nothing but good.
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