Yahoo! Pushes Green Living
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."
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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Thanks for the great article Josh, someone had better start thinking green afore we all are whining "why us".
I was driving back from the store a minute ago and passed 43 SUV's in 2 miles with one person in them. I just had an epiphany of sorts thinking of lone individuals pushing 3,800 pounds of metal and plastic down the roads of America.
Half of the destinations are either Walmart of some other place were more plastic can be purchased that will end up in land fills in a few years. Then I thought of all the smoke stacks in China that pumped out pollutants while making these "pieces of modern art".
Does this seem like a model for circular insanity to anyone else?
Always,
Phil
Hi Josh,
You mentioned Yahoo's nifty Take Action page, with the carbon calculator. Environmental Defense worked with Yahoo to create that page, supplying the underlying data. One of the scientists who worked with Yahoo posted about her experiences in our blog: Inside a Carbon Calculator". It's interesting to read how the numbers were derived.
Sheryl Canter
Environmental Defense