Climate Change as A New, Competitive Sport

Earth Day and every day: Competing At Carbonrally So the Earth Wins

The competition to reduce CO2 emissions is well underway at Carbonrally.com.

Carbonrally is a new web-based service that offers individuals and groups a fun, simple and competitive way to have a measurable impact on climate change.

Individuals focus on their personal goals. Teams vie for bragging rights.

The site regularly poses challenges that entail personal lifestyle changes. Each challenge translates directly into a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions measured in pounds of CO2. Sample challenges include drinking tap water vs. bottled water, avoiding disposable coffee cups and reducing the number of catalogs in your mailbox.

For each new challenge, Carbonrally reviews the science and provides an entertaining analysis linking each challenge to a CO2 value.

Participants act individually on Carbonrally.com and may also form teams to add a competitive element to the experience. The powerful teaming aspects of Carbonrally have already led to formation of over 130 teams of friends, classmates, and professional colleagues on the site. Although the site is still in its infancy, thousands of participants have collectively reduced CO2 emissions by more than 100 tons. That's equal to turning off the electricity to about 100 homes for a month.

Carbonrally's team play makes it very popular for groups including employees wanting to engage in healthy competition around shared goals. Company teams compete among colleagues and, increasingly, with other teams in their industry.

Some of the firms participating on Carbonrally.com are already recognized leaders in corporate social responsibility. For them, and others just starting green programs, the site has been a boon to empower employees and to recognize their CO2 reducing efforts.

Carbonrally plans to publish 1 or 2 "Super Challenges" and run a recruiting competition in honor of Earth Day on April 22. The firm is also launching special programs and challenges for corporate teams in the near future.

Quotes:

Carbonrally
"Our mission is to unleash the power of internet communities and on-line gaming to engage people on a massive scale" said Jason Karas, founder of Carbonrally. "We provide a place where people can get together, share their ideas, and instantly see the results of their collective actions. We also hope people can have some fun along the way, especially when dealing with an important issue like climate change."

Google
"At Google, we are always looking for ways to be good environmental citizens and reduce our carbon footprint. Carbonrally added an extra element of fun to our efforts, and inspired a little friendly competition between Googlers in our Pittsburgh and Cambridge offices. The fact that the site allows participants to easily track their progress particularly appealed to our software engineers, who tend to be more motivated by measurable results," said Cathy Serventi, who works in Google's Pittsburgh, PA, office.

Christopher Perchal, A Team Leader
"Carbonrally provides a fun way to do something together about climate change. We assembled a group of old friends near and far to have a collective impact. It feels good, and we're learning more about climate change with every challenge we take, "said Christopher Perchal, a team leader out of Elgin, IL.

The Redwoods Group, an insurance company
"Carbonrally has made us aware of how much we each can do to reduce CO2 emissions," said Kathryn Herzog, chief actuary, The Redwoods Group, an insurance company in Morrisville, North Carolina. "Carbonrally has been an excellent tool for engaging many Redwoods employees in our green initiative and remaining focused on our goals for positive change."

About Carbonrally
Based in Cambridge, MA, Carbonrally.com is a web platform offering individuals and groups a fun, simple and social way to have a measurable impact on climate change. Carbonrally publishes periodic science-based "challenges" which involve personal changes in behavior.

The site defines and lists the personal CO2 impacts associated with the challenges, and also reports combined scores for teams and the entire community. Through team play, Carbonrally provides a quick and easy program for companies and other groups seeking to engage people in collective climate action. The service is free and available to participants 13 years and older.