Companies rally around carbon reductions

Carbonrally's map illustrates emission reductions.

If making beneficial changes for their own sake isn’t enough, one Web-based tool is hoping people’s competitive nature will spur them to action.

Aiming to harness the power of online gaming and social networks, Cambridge-based Carbonrally issues challenges ranging from ridesharing to planting a vegetable garden that result in reduced carbon emissions. Site users, both individual and teams, accrue points for completed challenges, while Carbonrally measures the aggregate effect of users’ action by emission reductions.

Carbonrally, which was launched in 2007 with angel investor funds, is in the midst of a Series A funding round. As a social networking tool, it also publishes editorial content, which its founder says is separate from the sponsorships that support both teams and challenges.

“Working with sponsors is the front line of our business model,” says Carbonrally founder and CEO Jason Karas.

Companies use Carbonrally to marshal action among their employees or customer bases, Karas says. Several divisions of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and NBC are competing in challenges, for example. In Spring 2009, Carbonrally partnered with Seventeen magazine on a print and online campaign. The site’s Go Green with Seventeen team has about 8,500 members tracking the effects of shorter showers and nixing drive-thrus.

The company is also seeking businesses to underwrite specific challenges. San Jose-based eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), for example, has sponsored three challenges, which urge users to reuse clothing or shop online.