You know how once you get an idea in your head you start seeing examples of it everywhere? Last week I posted about using peer-comparison marketing (e.g., “peer pressure”) to drive reductions in residential energy consumption. Two days later Read/Write Web (one of my favorite group blogs on the future of the consumer web) posted this article about Brighter Planet, a new company doing exactly that. Their approach is to start with a national average value for an individual’s carbon footprint, and then allow members to refine their profile by adding information about their own energy consumption (what kind of car they drive, etc.). The result is a comparison engine for personal environmental impact that gets more accurate as more people use it. Smart idea, and just the kind of market-driven approach that’s likely to actually work.
