Carbonrally challenge you to cut carbon

If you're in need of inspiration to stick to your green goals or are looking for new ways to cut carbon, here’s a new website to check out at work…sorry, in your spare time at home. Carbonrally is a new website that aims to mix online games and social networks with consumers’ desire to shrink their carbon footprint.

Here's how it works. The company behind Carbonrally, Carbon Challenge, regularly posts a ‘challenge’ that translates into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Avoiding plastic bottles by choosing filtered tap water over bottled water, for example, translates into reducing 1.36kg of carbon dioxide emissions a week.

Individuals or teams can take up the challenge. Typically, it's the "dark green" consumers who take on the challenges, says founder Jason Karas, a Boston entrepreneur who studied environmental management but took a detour into internet management for 10 years. But ganging up to take on other teams (in a friendly competition kind of way of course) is what gets people really fired up.

A group of 17 "tweenage girls" from New Jersey just passed Google's Pittsburgh office in carbon reductions who in turn are fighting it out with Google's Cambridge crew. "We're taking Cambridge down!" the Pittsburg Googlers say. No sign of any UK members or groups yet, so get online and show them what us Brits are made of.

There are already several carbon calculators out there available from carbon offset companies and other sources, such as Act on CO2. Carbon Rally wants to keep it quick and light, while tapping into people's tribal competitive spirit. "We don't have to get people worked up and bummed out about climate change," Karas said. "We've giving them a place where they have an opportunity to act on that emotion."

The company expects to make revenue by having its challenges sponsored by corporations that offer environmentally oriented products or are looking to green up their image. Another planned feature is to have 'carbon rallyers' themselves offer challenges to others.