The Wall Street Journal

The following is an excerpt from the writer's perspective on the carbon-offset market.  To read the complete original article written by Nancy Matsumoto, please click here: Brighter Planet Reviewed in WSJ

We tested five online carbon-offset retailers that deal with individual consumers, using their carbon calculators to assess our emissions footprint and choosing offsets in different increments. 

Brighter Planet was probably the most educational and social media-savvy of the sites we tried.  It also sold the most expensive carbon credits at $14 per metric ton.  The site grew out of an environmental-economics class project two years ago at Middlebury College in Vermont and includes innovative features such as its Brighter Planet credit or debit card.  The site's carbon calculator was the most detailed we completed (including food and pets), and we liked that we could refer to our calculations every time we logged on and see our footprint diminish on a bar graph with each purchase we made.  But what about the high price of offsets?  Brighter Planet CEO Patti Prairie says that in addition to a panel of experts who reveiw each of Brighter Planet's projects, "we use the most stringent verification we can."