Save the Planet by Surfing the Web, 'Green' Websites Promise

Dec. 19, 2007 — -- On the internet, anyone can be an environmentalist. All you have to do, is, well, nothing. A number of "green" internet businesses promise users they can help save the planet by doing little more than surfing the right websites.

For instance, Blackle.com claims to help you save energy by offering a version of Google that has a black background, which may cut down on your display's electricity consumption. There are green search engines, green shopping sites, and even green dating sites -- it's an impressive abundance of good intentions.

Unfortunately, the fight against global warming is slightly more challenging than changing your homepage or joining a Facebook group.

"People who want to reduce their carbon footprint and combat global warming are going to have to take action in their lives," says Kate Smolski, a global warming campaigner for Greenpeace. "They need to do things like drive cars that are more gas efficient or change to energy-efficient appliances. And people should demand action from decision makers."

That hasn't stopped startups from capitalizing on the growing trendiness of anything "green."

CO2Stats.com promises that by installing a couple lines of code into a website, users can reduce pollutants. The code, founders say, will track how much carbon dioxide running your website produces, based on the amount of traffic to the site. CO2Stats says it will then purchase carbon offsets accordingly. (When an offset is purchased -- either by a large corporation or well-meaning individuals -- the money goes toward environmental projects, such as wind farms, that offset the carbon emissions.)

The founders of CO2Stats, Ph.D. students Alex Wissner-Gross and Tim Sullivan, are repeat entrepreneurs who recently sold (to Santa Barbara-based SurfMyAds.com) a web-based business that prints the entire text of public-domain books on posters. They also run a site called Isonme.com, where people upload photos and get instant advice from strangers to questions like "Am I too thin?" and "What do you think of my new haircut?"