How would you facilitate the buy/sell of carbon credits?

always good to suck up
i think this has promise !

one thought add-on- how about and this would be easy to take on with the other footprint sites... how much a person is slowing down the clock?

PeeJayEl,

One solution:

There would be a write-up about each company/web site providing buy/sell services and an affiliate/partner link. We'd be a "front-end." Transactions would take place at the company/web site providing buy/sell services.

Tlyden,

No sucking-up, just acknowledging contributions. I know how busy everybody is.

How much a person is slowing down the clock could be part of a member's personal Carbon Footprint page, suggested by Alvin.

"How would you facilitate the buy/sell of carbon credits?"
I don't think you need to offer this feature. But, it might be a good promotion for repeat users. You could have it so the users goes to a page of advertisements on your and all the money you make on the pages goes to buy carbon credits or a certain percentage.

Then say every visit to and help save the environment. Do you want to help place the link on your site or visit us once a day. (Once a day to keep advertisers happy so they know people are not just doing click fraud.)

That way users don't have to pay anything they just have to visit the site.

Kevin_Cox,

You mean we should buy carbon credits earned from the ads placed by the carbon credit exchange companies, to offset our own (CarbonTicker.com) carbon footprint generated by operating the site / organization? That makes lots of sense.

So does telling users they will help save the environment by going through our site to the carbon credit exchange companies.

Thanks for the tips!

I think BOTH Kevin's idea and Steve's are the right way to go for this project. I can personally buy/exchange credits or if I'm running a business you can link me up with other business who need or want to offload carbon credits.

Here are some very illuminating statistics about the number of potential users from the U.S., in the latest issue of Internet Retailer magazine:

"'THERE ARE ABOUT 30 MILLION HARDCORE GREEN ENTHUSIASTS IN THE U.S., BUT ANOTHER 100 MILLION WHO HAVE TAKEN SOME GREEN STEPS, INCLUDING ABOUT 50 MILLION WHO ARE INTERESTED IN FIGURING OUT HOW TO LIVE THEIR LIVES IN A SUSTAINABLE FASHION, but don’t know where to start,' Siegel says."

I'd think globally the numbers would be 2 - 3 times that many.

Dan Siegel is the CEO of Evo.com, a site that aggregates the sale of “green” products and services from more than a thousand online retailers. He also founded retail portal StudentAdvantage.com, together with chief operating officer Mark Eastwood, a former web site designer from eBay and eToys, Evo links to about 1,200 e-retailers selling some 100,000 green products and services.

The full article is at:
http://www.internetr...article.asp?id=24890

Evo: http://evo.com also has two interesting features:

1. The EVO Tree, which measures and maintains a member's environmental profile

2. "Green Attributes" assigned to every item listed on the site.

I love this idea.

You've said that you don't so far know of a site that provides this information. Where exactly do you plan to get it from?

stevesitv and Al Gore sitting in a tree...

As Blue ranted about Killer Bees last week, you'd have to be a super keener on the subject to create enough content to make it compelling. Not that others couldn't pitch in on that of course... but you're essentially talking about creating pages and pages of content here.

No reason it can't be done though. If its something as simple as writing a sarcastic article about American Enterprise institute, I can help.

PhilipH,

Thanks for the comment! Let's see:

If you mean, for example, calculating the running total of the amount of carbon added to the ecosphere, there are a number of sites providing data/datafeeds. Some are:

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/
http://zfacts.com/p/44.html
http://www.nationmas...onment-co2-emissions

In this case the issue is to find the ones that are reliable then choosing the best one or normalizing and combining more of them if we can't find one that combines all carbon emissions.

Gordon,

I'd rather sit in a tree with my wife....

You're absolutely right, we will have to:

1. Create enough content on our own to make the site compelling. A sarcastic article about American Enterprise Institute by you would fit in perfectly.
2. Syndicate content from high quality sources ... Al Gore, Amory Lovins, etc.
3. Use the blog content
4. In addition to the blog, maybe we should also have a forum?
5. A combination of some/all of the above.

Thanks for answering that stevesitv.

With regards to content, I think with an issue this topical, this controversial and this interesting to the public there is the potential for vast amounts of the stuff out there. Write articles, link other people's, post statistics... whatever you do there will be someone who agrees and someone who disagrees and they'll want to talk about it on your forum. This will start huge arguments and everyone will want their say... so they'll all read your site.

IFF... it stands out enough that they find it in the first place. As you've already implied, there are lots of sites dealing with these issues out there, so make sure yours is the best!

Thanks Philip!

You're right, there is a vast - and growing - amount of articles, stats, blogs, sites, books, videos, etc. we can access, syndicate, and debate on the blog and forum.

I'm sure we can make the site the best by utilizing crowd-sourcing talent and process CH offers. Hopefully you decide to be involved!

Hi,

This is an enormous project and will require very large funding. Have you put together any sort of a business plan or is this merely "a wish list"

Quote: "

1. "Instantly look up unbiased, reliable, constantly up-to-date data"

Auditing, compiling and verifying "up-to-date data" on green projects is very costly. For example, auditing for emissions on just one of our 18MW power plants costs us around US150,000 in the EU.

Imagine the cost of doing this worldwide.

This data is used by us to obtain or renew emission permits and or obtain Carbon Credits under the UN Sponsored Program, is confidential and not for dissemination to either our competitors nor the public.

How would you propose to get your hands on such data ?

In my opinion all that you could obtain is general data which is already available on the net ?

"2. Engage in meaningful discussions"

This sounds like a good idea.

"3. Buy carbon offsets/credits as a company or individual"

The New York Stock exchange is going to begin trading in Carbon Credits this year, They are currently traded on a Chicago Exchange.

This is a no brainer, all that is required is that you open a brokerage account, with your local friendly broker.

"4. Evaluate green/clean funds and investment opportunities"

If you are in North America, Europe and pretty much most of the civilized world, this would be considered as "Investment Advice" and you shall be required to register with regulatory bodies such as the US Securities and exchange commission, and obtain all of the necessary licenses, before you start giving investment advice. Competing with the established financial Advisory services' and large Stock Brokers is going to be quite a job, again requiring "deep pockets"

You shall need to calculate liability insurance into your business plan projections.

5. Purchase the latest green/clean products

This is easy.

I support Green projects and will help any way I can, if I have misunderstood anything please let me know.

Hi CharonV,

Thank a lot for your observations, suggestions, and kind offer to help!

Please see my answers in CAPITAL letters below.

This is an enormous project and will require very large funding. Have you put together any sort of a business plan or is this merely "a wish list"

Quote: "

1. "Instantly look up unbiased, reliable, constantly up-to-date data"

Auditing, compiling and verifying "up-to-date data" on green projects is very costly. For example, auditing for emissions on just one of our 18MW power plants costs us around US150,000 in the EU.

Imagine the cost of doing this worldwide.

This data is used by us to obtain or renew emission permits and or obtain Carbon Credits under the UN Sponsored Program, is confidential and not for dissemination to either our competitors nor the public.

How would you propose to get your hands on such data ?

In my opinion all that you could obtain is general data which is already available on the net ?

YOU ARE RIGHT, WE'D EVALUATE AND CHOOSE FROM THE MOST RELIABLE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA/DATA FEEDS. I THINK WE CAN COUNT ON THEM BECOMING MORE ABUNDANT AND PRECISE OVER TIME, WHICH WOULD MAKE OUR JOB TO FINE-TUNE OUR CARBON TICKER / FOOTPRINT VALUES RELATIVELY EASY.

THIS WOULD ALSO MINIMIZE THE COST OF BUILDING AND RUNNING THE SITE. I AGREE, THAT WE WILL NEED A BUSINESS PLAN AND WILL PREPARE ONE IF THERE IS ENOUGH SUPPORT FROM CH MEMBERS LIKE YOU TO TURN THIS IDEA INTO A BUSINESS.

"2. Engage in meaningful discussions"

This sounds like a good idea.

"3. Buy carbon offsets/credits as a company or individual"

The New York Stock exchange is going to begin trading in Carbon Credits this year, They are currently traded on a Chicago Exchange.

This is a no brainer, all that is required is that you open a brokerage account, with your local friendly broker.

AGREED. WE'D HAVE ARTICLES, ADS, AND LINKS TO THESE BROKERS FROM THE "GREEN/CLEAN FUNDS & INVESTING OPPORTUNITIES" SECTION FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE ACCOUNTS YET, OR ALREADY HAVE ACCOUNTS BUT ALSO SITE MEMBERS.

"4. Evaluate green/clean funds and investment opportunities"

If you are in North America, Europe and pretty much most of the civilized world, this would be considered as "Investment Advice" and you shall be required to register with regulatory bodies such as the US Securities and exchange commission, and obtain all of the necessary licenses, before you start giving investment advice. Competing with the established financial Advisory services' and large Stock Brokers is going to be quite a job, again requiring "deep pockets"

You shall need to calculate liability insurance into your business plan projections.

YOU ARE RIGHT, I SHOULD'VE SAID "FEATURING REPUTABLE GREEN/CLEAN FUNDS AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES." AS ABOVE, WE'D HAVE ARTICLES, ADS, AND LINKS TO THESE INVESTMENT RESOURCES.

5. Purchase the latest green/clean products

This is easy.

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

This now looks very interesting. If you should go forward with this idea, please contact me. I shall assist in any way I can.

Thank you very much, CharonV, for your kind offer! I'll present it to my two partners this weekend and report back to you.

I've also sent you a friend invitation, to facilitate communications.

With best regards,

Steve Kingsley

Stevesitv,

Thank you, looking forward to news of your venture.

http://carma.org/

blackbookmobile.com is already doing this and integrating with ManyOne Foundation mostly for the address book online storage part to leverage the "who do you trust" problem.

Info: I'm linking to this from; http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/UxfryCm/

Hey Steve_ Sorry for late answer, I took a while to understand what are you planing to do with this. I have to say I love the idea of selling carbon offsets to general public.
I already have some ideas of how this could be done. You know those customer cards giving you flight hours and different gifts for your purchases? Maybe you could do a green version of this, where the costumer can choose if he want some (green) gift or he wants to use his credits to buy carbon offsets.
This is also very "in line" with another section of your site "GREEN/CLEAN PRODUCTS FOR YOU CATALOG/STORE: Constantly updated product/service catalog and store "
Many other sections are also overlapping with my own project idea (I developed it much further since my last post).
I just "don't like" (I mean it is not what I want to do with my site) your sites focus on carbon emissions. I would like to talk about combating different types of problems as well. Plastics, chemical pollution, landfills etc.

Another section: "GREEN/CLEAN FUNDS & INVESTING OPPORTUNITIES: Feature up-to-date green/clean funds and investment opportunities ",
of course identical with my idea. So I would like to discuss this further.

I am having a busy weekend right now, but I will come back to you soon.

Hi Checoslovaco,

I see your point about attacking all sources of environmental damage and look forward to seeing Green Challenge fleshed out more!

Thanks for looking into this idea deeper and for the suggestions!

ONLINE "GREEN CARD"

I do like your idea about an online "green card" that could be used to buy green/clean products as well as carbon offsets. We could set it up automatically for each site member when they sign up.

FOCUS ON CARBON EMISSIONS

Measuring carbon emissions seems to be the most commonly accepted way to communicate the issue, rally opinion, and build a new economic/business infrastructure. Hence the name "CarbonTicker," and

However, the site sections:

* Blog
* Forum
* Green/Clean Tech
* Green/Clean Funds & Investment Opportunities
* Green/Clean Products Store

are all devoted to everything you've brought up: Plastics, chemical pollution, landfills, which are all part of the environmental issues and green/clean solutions we are trying to contribute to.

GREEN/CLEAN FUNDS & INVESTING OPPORTUNITIES

What I mean here is to feature green/clean funds and investment opportunities through articles, interviews, third-party ratings etc., possibly with affiliate links, where we'd get a commission.

In "Opportunities" I include start-up or later stage ventures with well-known risk factors that enable people to make sound investment decisions. What I don't know how to handle funding for the idea/conception stage. The personal, legal, and financial ramifications are too ambiguous and could be chaotic. That's where I have a big question mark regarding your "Green Challenge" too.

I'll post this comment on your "water cooler" too.

http://www.thestanda...net-carbon-footprint