How green is your Web site?
December 3rd, 2007, filed by Deborah Zabarenko

With thousands of the worldÕs most powerful environmental movers and shakers gathered in Bali to figure out next steps in combatting climate change, wouldnÕt it be nice if somebody far from the fray, somebody sitting in front of a computer screen Ñ somebody like you Ñ could do something to cut down on the emissions of carbon dioxide that fuel global warming? ThatÕs the idea behind the CO2Stats Project.

This online tool monitors Web sites and blogs for the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide their visitors emit. Formulated by Alex Wissner-Gross and Tim Sullivan, PhD candidates at Harvard and Yale, respectively, the widget calculates how much power is consumed by all the visitors to a particular site and offsets it for free.

For each pound of carbon dioxide that results from Web traffic to a site where the widget is installed, the project buys carbon offsets from Sustainable Travel International. Users who install the widget pay nothing.

Wissner-Gross and Sullivan aim to make the entire Internet carbon-neutral, a couple of keystrokes at a time; they say the Internet is responsible for more than 100 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually. By contrast, U.S. power plants emit 2.79 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. The CO2Stats own Web site has so far offset less than 2 pounds of carbon. Other sites where the tool is installed show comparable results. The widgetÕs creators pay out of pocket for the offsets but hope for sponsorship in the future.

To learn more go to http://www.co2stats.com.