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.

Update Clean Energy Flowing In Greensburg

Mar 17, 2010 8:03 AM CDT

(Justmeans.com / CSR News) -

The answer may be blowin’ in the wind, but it’s not always easy to find. For Greensburg, Kansas, it took a devastating natural disaster, a visionary commitment by residents, an arduous fund raising effort, and a lengthy planning and building process, to get the clean energy flowing. But that day is finally here.

Leveled in 2007 by a EF-5 tornado that destroyed more than 95% of the buildings in this town of 1500 residents, Greensburg vowed to rebuild as the greenest town in America. Now, less than three years later, that commitment has paid off as the first of ten massive new wind turbines begin to spin outside town.

The Greensburg Wind Farm by NativeEnergy came online this month, and we’re thrilled that members of the Brighter Planet community were able to play a key role in making this story a reality. As charter supporters of this wind farm, every Brighter Planet cardholder helped fund its construction every time you swiped your card to buy gas and groceries. Thanks everybody! It’s great to see another inspiring example of innovative ways we can come together to build a clean energy future.

The ten turbines, each capable of producing up to 1.25 MW of electricity, will provide enough clean energy to power the town several times over — this allows Brighter Planet members who contributed to the project to claim rights to some of the clean energy produced, with enough left over for the town of Greensburg also to claim carbon neutrality.

The sheer scale of these turbines is awesome; each one is as tall as a 35-story building, with blades a long as the wingspan of a Boeing 747. An eyesore for local residents? Quite the contrary — the only concerns raised during the placement process came from folks who wanted the project located where it could be seen from their homes.

SOURCE Brighter Planet