Press Release - Brighter Planet

Learn about our Company

Fresh green solutions.

Brighter Planet makes it easier for anyone to get involved in the fight against climate change. Simply put, we help people manage their environmental footprint.

Our free social web application (brighterplanet.com) serves everyone, no matter their "greenness" or scientific interest. People measure their climate impact, discover tailored conservation tips to save energy and money, create emission-reducing strategies, and share their ideas and experiences. Visitors answer questions powered by a sophisticated emissions model and watch their carbon footprint-as individual as a fingerprint-emerge. Each footprint, unlike a fingerprint, changes over time as people learn to live more carbon free.

We believe in the power of community. Our web-based campaigns, such as the 350 Challenge, Climate Matters video contest, and #earthtweet tweet-a-thon, are fun ways for people to share and engage. We partner with a diverse range of organizations-large and small, for profit and non-profit-all united to support solutions to the climate crisis.

We offer products that people use in their daily lives, allowing them to become CO2 fighters. Our no-fee Brighter Planet Visa credit and debit cards earn innovative rewards that help build renewable energy projects. O ffsets by Brighte r Planet counteract unavoidable emissions from things like home energy or traveling to work or play.

Our members invest in the most reputable climate solutions. We search for wind turbines, cow power installations, and other clean energy projects that demonstrate community and social value while reducing greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere. We pit project candidates against our stringent carbon offset policy and accept only those unanimously approved by the luminaries on our Project Selection Committee.

Our roots trace back to a Middlebury College environmental economics class project. Class ended, but Professor Jon Isham and students Andy Rossmeissl and Jake Whitcomb continued shaping the concept. Summer of 2006, Brighter Planet was founded. Fall of 2006, veteran executive Patti Prairie joined the cause as CEO. Since launching in November 2007, more than 100,000 people in all 50 states have used our products and services.

At Brighter Planet, we're proud to be pioneers of a new environmentalism: one that is accessible to everyone, fits easily with one's lifestyle, and is fun to share. We invite you to sign up and join our growing community!

For more information, please visit us at brighterplanet.com.

Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification Program Awarded Grant to Promote Green Job Alternatives

Oct 21, 2009 8:38 PM CDT

(Justmeans.com / CSR News) - — Brighter Planet's Crowd-Powered Microgrant Program Helps Communities Turn Good Ideas into Real World Solutions —

[Map with top five projects here]

MIDDLEBURY, VT – Andrew Munn has been awarded $5,000 from the Brighter Planet Project Fund, a monthly micro-granting program focused on fighting climate change. His project, Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification in the Coal River Valley, with the support of Coal River Mountain Watch, seeks to develop economic alternatives to coal extraction in the region.

Powered by Brighter Planet’s social website to nominate and vote on projects of merit, the Project Fund seeds the growth of neighborhood-scale solutions that help people fight or adapt to climate change. Brighter Planet customers endow the Project Fund by using the company’s products and services. Members think of it like a grassroots stimulus package for the climate

“Eighteen deserving projects vied for votes and 13,983 votes were cast in our first grant period,” said Patti Prairie, Brighter Planet's CEO. “The project that more of our members voted for than any other was the Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification Program. October’s Project Fund grant will help them make a start towards a sustainable economy in place of the particularly egregious practice of extracting coal through mountain top removal.”

Over the next nine months, Andrew Munn, Laura Steepleton, and Charles Suggs will interview community members, identify community-led entrepreneurial projects, and select five projects to support. They will document their work on www.journeyupcoalriver.org and adapt their results as lesson plans for regional high schools and colleges. "By supporting the development of community-driven economic alternatives, this project will reduce local dependency on coal extraction and help educate young people on cultural and economic intricacies of sustainable development in Appalachia," said Munn.

Brighter Planet community members vote for next month’s grant recipient starting November 1st. Submissions are now open for November’s Project Fund grant of up to $5,024. Six new grassroots submissions from California, Texas, West Virginia, Indiana, and New Hampshire have already been vetted and are on deck.

About Brighter Planet

Brighter Planet (www.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 is 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. To date, more than 100,000 customers have used the company’s climate change solutions, the Brighter Planet Visa credit and debit cards and Offsets by Brighter Planet, to invest in reputable American renewable energy projects.

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