Greendimes, Terrapass, and CarbonFund

Some pointers to a few personal environmental websites.

Greendimes.com claims that for a dime a day ($3/month) they will hound direct marketing organizations and keep you off of their mailing lists, even as they change policies and re-add you repeatedly. In addition, they will plant 1 tree for you for every month that you are in the program. I'm always trying to get off of mailing lists, so this sounds pretty good to me, I don't know how well it will work, but it can't hurt to try. Here is what they say:

Well, we’ll call, email and write these companies to make sure they leave you alone! This isn’t easy. These companies change their policies and their contact info often. And even if you do go through the effort of validating every company’s policies and contact info and write to each one, you could still get junk mail from them. Why?

Because when you move, donate money to charity, buy something from a catalog or do one of a hundred other seemingly innocent things, your name gets sold! That’s why we’re a recurring service – we’re going to contact these companies on your behalf a LOT, just to make sure you’re kept off of these lists and people stop selling your name and address.

We keep you off.
Just because you’re off doesn’t mean you stay off. Just about anything you do –– refinance, move, get a new credit card, etc. –– puts you back on. So, we will regularly request your information be removed from existing lists and we add new junk mailers to our list regularly.

I donate money to charities around the holidays. Last year I gave $1000 to Heifer to help sustainably solve poverty. A good organization, but I received so much mail from them in the following year asking for more donations, it really puts me off donating again. They are worse than my alma mater who I repeatedly ask to stop sending me ads for $200 "Alumni desk lamps" and sending me on $5000 "Alumni Study Abroad Trips". I doubt greendimes can do anything about charity mailers, but anything helps.

On the other side of things is carbon neutrality. It is a big phrase where I work, and I kind of like the idea. It turns out that going personal carbon neutral by purchasing credits is not that difficult. There are two common websites where it can be done:

Terrapass: A for-profit entity (not necessarily a bad thing) that sells 20,000lbs of CO2 offset (SUV for a year) for $80. They also send you a cute bumper sticker and window decal to promote visibility.

The first step you can take to fight global warming is to reduce your carbon footprint through conservation. Drive less. Turn down the thermostat. Buy locally produced goods.

Then use TerraPass to reduce your carbon footprint all the way to zero.

When you buy a TerraPass, your money funds renewable energy projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. And these reductions counterbalance your own emissions.

CarbonFund: A non-profit entity that sells 20,000lbs of C02 offset (SUV for a year) for $50, and it is tax deductable. They also give you a bumper sticker and decal if you are interested, or let you opt-out to support more projects. Lastly, they let you choose if your donation should go towards Renewables, Energy Efficiency, or Reforestation Projects with prices per lb for each. Currently this seems like a slightly better deal than terrapass.

We hear you. We know some people prefer renewable energy, while others prefer trees or efficiency. We also know some people have issues with various offset types. So we figured: It’s your carbon. It ought to be your choice where it goes. From our contribution page you’ll have the option of supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation projects, or a combination. You can also leave it blank and support our basket of projects. That gives you a lot of options—which is exactly how it should be. Carbonfund.org ensures the projects meet the highest standards of verification so you can feel confident with your choice.

Other options I haven't looked into much:
http://certifiedcleancar.com/
http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/
http://www.futuroforestal.com/english/co2ol_eng.htm