I think that one of the greatest threats to the clean energy movement is the myriad of misinformation and confusing rhetoric that is peddled by companies (large and small) who profess to be “green” or offer “green” solutions.

A web based service called CO2stats is a great case in point for illustrating both of those issues. The owner, Alex Wissner-Gross Ph.D.appears to be a very smart guy. Dr. Gross and his service hit the news recently via reports of a study he conducted that measured the “carbon footprint” of Google searches.

CO2stats, which is run out of a Boston apartment (source) sells “green certified site” badges. CO2stats is also offering to make websites “carbon neutral.” How does one make a website carbon neutral? You pay them of course and they’ll do it for you by purchasing, “…the appropriate amount of audited renewable energy from wind and solar farms.” (source) Anyone who knows anything about energy knows that no amount of credit purchases can “offset” the burning of a fossil fuel or the release of emissions into the atmosphere. You just can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

This company also claims to be able to know, “…what type of energy is being used to power the networks that are connecting your visitors’ computers with your servers.” Let me be one of the first to call that claim highly suspect. You can create a model to speculate on what type of power is being generated based on the location of the server and the fuel diversity profile of the region, if available. But no one can really know what percentage of fuel is powering a particular computer at any given time. So perhaps the “team” at CO2stats has some sort of a model. How accurate is that model?

What is really instructive to me when scanning the value proposition contained on the CO2stats website are the claims that they can assist with growing your business. The site exclaims, “Your subscription includes free advertising on one of the web’s largest green ad networks, spanning thousands of sites.” Could we see a comprehensive list of those sites please? CO2stats also claims that the presence of their special “green” badge will increase the amount of time that visitors stay on the website. All this leads me to wonder. Is there anything that CO2stats can’t do for a business? Click the huge SIGN UP NOW button, enter your credit card and find out.

Excuse me for being skeptical and a bit cheeky. I’m of the opinion that enterprises like CO2stats are merely marketing exercises, selling carbon offsets that are of dubious value to both the holder and the environment. Purchasing a carbon offset is tantamount to buying a get out of jail free card in the game Monopoly. And who knows what type of “green” extortion could occur the (hopefully not near) future? It’s possible that “environmental” groups could start charging companies that don’t have the approved “green” symbol on their websites with crimes against the earth.

The clean energy movement needs real solutions to difficult problems. It doesn’t need rhetoric designed to make people feel guilty about using their computers, having children, starting a business or doing anything else that uses energy. The clean energy movement certainly doesn’t need get out of jail free cards either. My hope is that in 2009 more people look beyond the hype and the marketing to realize that the long term energy problems can’t be solved by paying someone to allow you to post a certified “green” badge on your website.