PRESS ROOM

WASHINGTON –  January 25, 2008

You turn off the lights when you leave home and you make sure the water isn’t running when you brush yourteeth. Now you can also try to make your hours online greener with a couple of mouse clicks.

On the social-networking site Facebook, an application called “Greenbook” offers users the eco-friendly  opportunity to make up for the energy they’re using while browsing by simply by adding a little green icon to their page. 

Kobocafe, the maker of Greenbook, purchases its renewable energy certificates from 3Degrees, a company that is listed with the U.S. Department of Energy as a “Green Marketer.” That company takes a cut of the money and transfers the balance to power companies that produce renewable energy. 3Degrees received the department’s Green Power Supplier Award as a renewable energy marketer-of-the-year in 2007.

 

Gabe Petlin, director of regulatory affairs and carbon markets at 3Degrees, said renewable energy certificates focus on funding and producing clean, renewable energy.

 

Renewable energy represents “clean sources of electricity generation that come from fuel sources that are never going to run out, readily replenish themselves, and have virtually no emissions like greenhouse gasses,” Petlin said.

 

3Degrees is certified by Green-e, a third-party, non-profit agency that regulates renewable energy products to ensure that companies are providing the services they promise. Petlin said Green-e audits 3Degrees and its renewable energy practices annually.

 

Qasemi said it was important to Greenbook’s developers that they purchase renewable energy certificates from a reliable source so that Greenbook users could have a real environmental influence.

 

According to the Greenbook homepage, the application offset 176,540 pounds of carbon dioxide for the month of December.