I talk to Wendy Brawer and Thomas Turnbull about the origins of Green Map System (greenmap.org) and what they to accomplish when they launch the Open Green Map (opengreenmap.org) in the coming months.

For this year's Yahoo! Green Award, Yahoo! looked for a “green mashup” that would inspire people to use social technology to help the environment. After reading through the project submissions in the “Environment” Cause Area of the NetSquared Project Gallery, they chose Live Climate to be this year's Yahoo! Green Award recipient.

Below is an e-interview with it's co-Directors, Nick Handler and Matt Evans (who is also the Founder).

1. How does Live Climate work? Where did the idea come from?

Live Climate is a non-profit, online marketplace for carbon offset projects that do more than just reduce greenhouse gases - they also help fight poverty, create jobs in poor communities and protect local ecosystems. We identify these offset projects and then connect consumers to them through our website - www.liveclimate.org. We provide information and media on the projects that describe how they work and how they positively impact low-income communities and local environments. The consumer can choose the project, or projects that they'd like to support and purchase offsets directly from them.

This entry originally appeared in the Portland Oregonian on June 20, 2008 under the title "Climate Change's Other Inconvenience." 

By WeBuyItGreen:  promoting green living, fair trade and tap water

By WeBuyItGreen:  promoting green living and fair trade

This is the first in a series at WeBuyItGreen called Fair Trade Gifts that Change the World, which attempts to show how buying fair trade goods impacts the lives of the individuals who produce them.  

We have a winner for the Yahoo! Green Award - Live Climate!

Last year, FamilyFarmed.org received the Yahoo! Green Award for its potential to use Web 2.0 tools to benefit the environment by connecting everyday consumers with their local farmers.

This year Yahoo! looked for an innovative “green mashup” that would inspire people to use social technology to help the environment. The winner was chosen from the project submissions included in the “Environment” Cause Area of the Project Gallery on the NetSquared web site.

Here's a statement from the folks at Yahoo! about why they chose Live Climate

"We chose Live Climate because they are using the internet in an incredibly innovative way - connecting people through investments in carbon offsets to relieve poverty AND improve the environment. We are excited to award them $5,000 in Yahoo! Search Marketing keywords to help them inspire people to take action on climate change in a very personal and empowering way. Yahoo! is looking forward to future mashups on this site that will allow carbon offset buyers to connect more directly with project owners in developing countries."

You can learn more about Live Climate on their web site, www.liveclimate.org, and get involved with their work by signing up for their newsletter, or making a donation of time or money.

We're developing a widget for GreenerOne that will allow members to display how many people they've helped to make a 'green' decision during their purchase.

We need the help of a facebook developer.

We're building out the backend to intergrate with GreenerOne product reviews and need somebody who can help us intergrate the widget on facebook. The widget is pretty straight basic, it's just a dynamic PNG generated when somebody loads a page and has info about the GreenerOne's reviews.

I'm writing this while I sit in the passenger seat of a giant, white cargo van careening up the East Coast on route 15, so if I seem a bit distracted in tone, that's probably why. I could wait the four hours until I'm safely in the confines of my computer chair, but I don't want to lose the ideas while they're there. Well, that and I'm sort of melodramatic...

Saturday, May 31st, "green geeks" will get together at GreenDevCamp at the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City, CA to talk about:

* How can companies, big and small, make their operations, code, practices, etc. more sustainable?
* In what ways can technology make our lives more green?

They are also hoping to walk away with concrete projects:

Last year, NetSquared Featured Project, FamilyFarmed.org received the Yahoo! Green Award for its potential to use Web 2.0 tools to benefit the environment by connecting everyday consumers with their local farmers.

This year, Yahoo! is looking for innovative “green mashups” that will inspire people to use social technology to help the environment.

Yahoo! will review the project submissions included in the “Environment” Cause Area of the NetSquared Project Gallery. Using Yahoo! APIs is a plus, but not necessary. The most innovative green mashup will receive a $5,000 Yahoo! Search Marketing award.