"Cool Tags" for sale!

Buying "Cool Tags" is not the latest thinly-veiled attempt to capitalize on our nations's insecurities. Rather, it's a great initiative, as the team says, to help Start Global Cooling.

In particular, the TIAA-CREF/Clif Bar Pro Cycling Team are selling Cool Tags at each of their races. Really, a Cool Tag is a $2 donation to Native Energy which goes towards clean wind-powered energy. Your $2 donation will produce enough energy cleanly to offset about 300 miles of driving emissions. The idea behind this particular promotion is that if everybody who came to the race purchased a Cool Tag, they could offset their emissions by funding an equal amount of clean energy.

Now, by purchasing the Tag you don't 'unburn' the gasoline you spent getting to the race. Still, I think it's a great way to raise awareness, and it gives people a way of associating their impact on the environment with their daily activities, and to give them a dollar cost associated with living a sustainable lifestyle.

In 2006, for the third year running , the TIAA-CREF/Clif Bar Pro Cycling Team purchased purchasing enough credits to offset the carbon footprint they created over the course of the entire year. Additionally, they planned ahead so that they would be able to buy the as much of their cyclists' food as possible from local, organic farmers. Check out the team's blog for more info on current and future initiatives.

I like the paradigm shift these groups encourage us to take on: not to aim for a reduced carbon footprint, but to aim for zero carbon footprint.