Little Green Genie is software and a Web site which wants to help you offset the carbon emissions of your computer, from the time it is manufactured to the total time you use it during its lifetime in your home. The two in tandem offer you the ability to purchase carbon credits, which are put towards global projects to counter carbon in the atmosphere of the planet. The idea of Little Green Genie is noble, but we feel some flaws and confusion exist in the consumer side implementation of this, leaving a typical user to wonder if what they are buying into is actually offsetting what they are doing.
Rating:
EarthTechling gives Little Green Genie a rating of 3 OUT OF 5 ECO-STARS.
Introduction:
You’ve probably heard the phrases “carbon offsets,” “carbon emissions,” “carbon footprint” and “carbon neutral” plenty of times now in mainstream media. The whole idea behind these phrases, which some consider controversial, is that it takes a certain amount of pollutant generating CO2 emissions to do many different things, be it fly across country, drive across town or even manufacture a desktop computer. The idea of offsets and carbon neutral is to pay back into the system, usually though a cash contribution, to fund projects like tree plantings and alternative energy development which help restore balance back into the atmosphere.
There are formulas and such which have been developed to help one determine how much carbon offsetting is necessary to cancel out select carbon producing actions. Lots of companies, large and small, are getting into this, trying to act as a middleman to interpret these formulas so you can be more green-friendly in your actions. One such company is Little Green Genie, which produces special software it claims will help offset your computer’s carbon footprint.
image via Little Green Genie
The idea behind Little Green Genie is simple: you download the free software after pre-purchasing an amount of carbon credits to offset the amount of usage that you will do with your PC or Mac. It then monitors your usage, automatically reducing your pre-purchased credit as time goes along.
How does Little Green Genie really perform? Does the pre-purchase of these carbon offsets actually offset the usage of your computer, or is it just green marketing hype? As you read further along, we’ll attempt to answer some of these questions and more.
