Carbonfund.org partner WeddingWire has teamed up with MIX 107.3 FM and the Washington Bridal Showcase to give one lucky couple from the Washington, DC metro area a dream wedding BUT they only have one week to plan! Today's the last day to enter, and the top 5 finalists will be announced tomorrow. Enter now to win. The winning couple will be announced on January 29th and their wedding will take place one week later! WeddingWire, a leading online wedding planning resource, partnered with Carbonfund.org in early 2009 to offer engaged couples an affordable way to make their wedding a special day for family, friends and for the planet as well. Couples and their guests are able calculate their carbon footprints and contribute jointly in offsetting the wedding, making it a carbon neutral event. To make this possible, WeddingWire has integrated Carbonfund.org’s weddings carbon calculator as a tool on WeddingWire’s personalized wedding websites. To learn more or plan your ZeroCarbon Wedding, visit www.carbonfund.org/weddings!

In 2008, three friends partnered to form Rebounces. Using a proprietary and first-of-its kind technology, Rebounces recharges flat tennis balls – those that have lost their bounce – and provides them in bulk to teaching professionals at discount. What this means is tremendous savings for professional, avid and weekend tennis players, along with trainers and institutions. It also means that more flat tennis balls are kept out of landfills, where more than 310+ million balls (US alone) end up annually. Rebounces is revolutionizing the tennis industry by looking at how it must evolve to keep up with environmental concerns and the overall need for change. Rebounces' mission is to support the sustainable growth of the game of tennis by providing alternative ways to recycle tennis balls, and ultimately provide children with more access to the game. Rebounces doesn't stop with the tennis industry. When balls are too worn out for the court and can no longer be "Rebounced," the company makes them available for some unique non-tennis and recycling uses. Its motto, Replay, Reuse and Recycle tells a story that is in need of being heard: 1) Replay= Give tennis balls extended life —bring just-out-of-the-can bounce back; 2) Reuse = Non-traditional uses for tennis balls to extend their life and reduce landfill waste; and 3) Recycle = Establish partnerships in a variety of industries to determine smart uses for worn tennis balls. As a partner since 2008, Rebounces is a company who is truly working to reduce what they can and offset what they can’t. They have partnered with us to offset their business office emissions as well as all carbon emissions from Rebounces related shipments. To learn more please visit www.rebounces.com.

A CarbonFree® partner since 2007 the Quail Roost Foundation makes national and international grants in the fields of All Creatures, Education, Emergency Relief, Health, Home Community, Justice, and Sustainability. By domestic and worldwide standards, their resources are small and are generally directed to organizations and projects for which small amounts can make a measurably large impact.   Feeling that their mission should apply not only to their grant-making practices, but also to their everyday lives and activities, the Quail Roost Foundation has made a great effort to reduce, reuse and recycle. Throughout the Foundation's first five years their principal administration operated solely on solar and wind-power. They have also partnered with us to offset the carbon footprint resulting from travel to their annual board meeting by supporting our Return to Forest project in Nicaragua. Since its inception, Quail Roost Foundation has allocated grant funds to non-profit organizations working to increase conservation, provide clean and healthy environments, and care for wildlife and domestic animals.  They are committed to continuing to fund projects that enhance the sustainability and well-being of our world by supporting efforts in education, conservation and protection.   To learn more visit http://quailroostfoundation.org.

100 years ago, the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley in Northeastern Louisiana was a wetland ecosystem that supported 22 million acres of forested habitat. After decades of land conversion for agriculture this region now supports less than 20% of that forested habitat. With help from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Trust for Public Land, Carbonfund.org is working to restore some of this area to its original splendor. The Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge Reforestation Project will restore approximately 1,870 acres of native bottomland hardwood forest that will re-establish habitat for an estimated 400 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish including threatened and endangered species such as the Louisiana Black Bear and the Florida Panther. The newly forested area will also benefit the local community by providing suitable areas for hiking and biking, a destination for school groups and an opportunity for nature photography. Reforestation and forest preservation carbon offset projects are part of the global warming solution. Forest-based carbon offset projects fight climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere in trees and soil and have many co-benefits for the community and local wildlife. Forest preservation creates jobs, maintains and expands wildlife habitats, protects biodiversity, and improves local environmental quality. This project was the first reforestation project in North America to be validated to both the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards. To learn more about this and other Carbonfund.org carbon offset projects visit www.carbonfund.org/projects.

Do you enjoy taking pictures and supporting a great cause? If so, enter the "Picture Your World" photo contest sponsored by iVillage and CafePress. The campaign encourages consumers to submit photos that answer the question, “Why on Earth are you saving the planet?” Each participant will receive a free, special edition Earth Month tote bag from CafePress. They will also be entered for a chance to win a grand prize trip to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. You can also purchase eco-friendly products from CafePress that feature their photo submission, including reusable SIGG water bottles and organic T-shirts and aprons. A portion of proceeds from these items, as well as from all Earth Day-related merchandise available on CafePress, will be donated to Carbonfund.org! No purchase is necessary- visit http://ivillage.cafepress.com/earthday to participate!

One of the best aspects of working here at Carbonfund.org is interacting with our partners and learning about all of the amazing things they are doing. NIKA, whose water received our CarbonFree® Product Certification earlier this year, is no exception. They are a company dedicated to creating positive social and environmental change. NIKA was founded with sole purpose of using the power of water to help bring clean water to those in need. By directing 100% of its profits to alleviate water and sanitation needs in impoverished countries,NIKA hopes to solve the water needs of thousands of families throughout the world. Although they’ve only been in existence a few months, NIKA, together with Free the Children, has already been able to finance the construction of a complete academic village in Kenya that will educate and provide clean water to over 500 children each day. One of the other difficulties facing many of these communities is that young girls are unable to go to school because they have to do the daily water walks to gather the family water for the day.  Without education, the cycle of poverty may truly never end.  Through the “Adopt a Village” program, Free the Children has developed a creative solution that gets the girls to school but still allows them to take water home after school.  They do this through water catchment systems whereby rain water is captured on building roofs and piped over to a rainwater storage tank.  The girls are then provided with clean water before going home for the day. NIKA is also committed to maintaining the environment. In addition to the CarbonFree® Certification they are helping to ensure that 100% of what you drink gets recycled through their “One-for-One” recycling program. They believe this program is critical so that we are not increasing the amount of plastic waste that is cluttering our landfills. We congratulate NIKA on their impressive achievements and look forward to seeing what they accomplish in the future. To learn more about NIKA and its mission, please visit www.nikawater.org.

Carbonfund.org announced the latest product to be certified CarbonFree® through its rigorous CarbonFree® Product Certification Program: Motorola's MOTO™ W388 Renew+ mobile phone. Sold in Canada, this CarbonFree® offering is 100% free of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and BFRs (brominated flame retardants) and uses recycled plastic from water cooler bottles for the housing of the phone. With Carbonfund.org's CarbonFree® Product Certification Carbon Footprint Protocol, Motorola worked with a third-party consultant to calculate the emissions resulting from the entire life-cycle of the product, including use and recycling. To reach carbon neutrality and earn certification as well as the CarbonFree® Certified Label, Motorola supports Carbonfund.org's third-party validated renewable energy and reforestation carbon reduction projects. "The integrity, strength, transparency and rigor of the CarbonFree® Product Certification Program has provided Motorola value in bringing carbon neutral electronics products to market," said Bill Olson, Director, Office of Sustainability and Stewardship, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Teaming with Carbonfund.org has helped us offer consumers a product such as Renew that has eco-friendly attributes including post-consumer recycled content plastic, eco-conscious packaging, energy-efficient performance and CarbonFree® certification." To date, Motorola has worked with Carbonfund.org to certify five products CarbonFree®, including mobile phones and accessories, providing carbon neutral options to consumers in 15 countries: the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Botswana, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Namibia, United Arab Emirates and South Africa. Motorola's first, award-winning CarbonFree® Certified phone, the MOTO™ W233 Renew, was made available in the U.S. and Canada in 2009 and won first place in the CTIA Wireless 2009 E-Tech Awards in the Green - Consumer Hardware category. Features of the new MOTO™ W388 Renew+ include best-in-class talk time, an energy-efficient charger, VGA camera with 4x zoom, onboard 7.5 MB memory and up to 2 GB external memory for more music, imaging and games, and excellent voice quality with Motorola's CrystalTalk™. To learn more about the CarbonFree® Product Certification Program, please visit www.carbonfund.org/products.

Earlier this week, the batteries in my TV’s remote control died. They had been going for awhile but I was a little too lazy to get off the couch and find a new set of batteries. When they finally went for good I realized that I had a set of AA Venom Power Eco Alkalines™. These environmentally friendly batteries feature 0% Mercury, 0% Cadmium, 0% Lead and, significantly, are CarbonFree® Certified by Carbonfund.org. As I happily clicked through the channels (I tend to be a bit of a channel surfer!) with my newly juiced remote I thought about the significance of the product certification. The reality that these batteries truly are carbon neutral is pretty impressive. Their carbon footprint was neutralized after a detailed product life-cycle assessment that included calculations of the emissions resulting in each phase of the life of the product (including raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution and retail, use, disposal and recycling), and reducing the emissions. The life-cycle assessment is done by a third-party consultant, in accordance with Carbonfund.org's product certification protocol. Further, by purchasing a CarbonFree® Certified product you are supporting some pretty awesome, third-party validated carbon reduction projects. In Venom’s case they chose to support our Return to Forest reforestation project. Validated by the Rainforest Alliance to the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards with Gold Distinction, the Return to Forest Project is helping to reforest as well as reconnect critical biological corridors along Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. The project also brings economic opportunities to local communities while sequestering about 170,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Venom’s Eco Alkaline batteries are progressive, high quality consumer batteries. Plus, they're carbon neutral! To learn more about the batteries or about Venom Power, visit: www.venom-group.com.

NBS was recently certified as a Green Business by the City/County of San Francisco and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The Bay Area Green Business Program verifies that businesses meet higher standards of environmental performance. They work with government agencies and utilities to help local businesses comply with all environmental regulations and take actions to conserve resources, prevent pollution, and minimize waste. To receive this distinction NBS is “raising the bar” on recycling, with more aggressive office recycling programs that include recycling bins at each desk, only one garbage can per suite and composting all paper towels. They are also purchasing recycled and certified paper products, recycling old computer and electronic items and using online conferencing technology to reduce their travel. A CarbonFree® Partner since 2007, NBS provides consulting, services and software to local governmental agencies in California and across the United States. NBS assists such agencies with sound advice and consulting related to the use of special financing districts, rates and fees, cost allocation plans, fiscal impacts, and other fiscal and revenue mechanisms. Please visit www.nbsgov.com for more information.

Like seemingly everywhere else in the country, Glee mania has hit the Carbonfund.org staff with full force. For the past few months Wednesdays have been full of anticipation for the nights’ show while Thursdays have been filled with ‘singing,’ and I use the term lightly, of the songs sung on Glee the night before. Today, however, much of the Glee talk has been about the sighting by Carbonfund.org staffers of the CarbonFree® Certified Motorola Renew cell phone. In last night’s episode Emma Pillsbury, played by Jayma Mays, was shown using the phone. Present in a few shots, the phone really hit the spotlight when Emma held it up to allow Will Schuester, played by Matthew Morrison, to hear the Glee Club belt out a fantastic performance. The Renew received Carbonfund.org’s CarbonFree® Certified label this year. To attain the certification the phone went through an intensive life-cycle assessment to calculate the emissions resulting from each phase in the life of the product including manufacturing, shipping, use and disposal. The phone is available at T-Mobile stores. Click here to watch the full episode of Glee featuring the Motorola Renew!