Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Check out our Thanksgiving Buyer’s Guide to make this year’s Thanksgiving a green one. Click here to read more

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PC World recently published a list of “Incredibly useful and interesting websites” and featured yours truly, Greenzer. The list of 100 was divided into several categories and Greenzer was chosen in the “7 sites for buying, selling and renting almost anything” section alongside other great sites like Zillow and Freecycle. We’re thrilled that the PC World crew likes our stuff and we hope you do too. Take a look at some of our latest features here.

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Today, we’ll be launching the newest series of features in the evolution of Greenzer.com. Since our launch on Earth Day of this year, we’ve paid close attention to our users and the great feedback we’ve received. These new developments are the product of both public input and the innovations that we have had in the works for some time. We think they’ll add different perspectives to controversial green consumer issues and enrich the overall user experience. Greenzer is not just about shopping for green products, it’s about learning and sharing information and these features will provide a rich environment to do so.

The first in this series of developments is focused on enhancing one of Greenzer’s most popular features, the Green Face-Offs. Historically, the Face-Offs have matched green products up against their non-green counterparts to evaluate each product’s pros and cons from an environmental and practical standpoint. The objective is to demonstrate the environmental, health, safety and/or cost benefits of one product versus another. In all cases, we chose examples in which the green product was likely to be an easy choice. Click here to read more

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Last Wednesay, we launched the public beta of Greenzer in France at www.greenzer.fr. The site opened its doors with over 5,000 products from over 30 retailers. This is our first launch outside of the US and we’re excited to make this announcement such a short time after our public beta launch in the US on Earth Day ‘08.

In the Fall of 2007, I was introduced to two really bright web veterans in France that were writing a business plan for a green consumer website. Their plans focused on creating a place for consumers to learn about and shop for eco-friendly products and services online. Sound familiar? As Greenzer was a bit further down the path, we decided to join our efforts and the result of this collaboration is greenzer.fr. Click here to read more

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Not much feels better than realizing others appreciate what you do - which is why we were so psyched that CoolMomPicks gave us a shout out the other day. Thanks, CMP!

Cool Mom Picks is one of the coolest mommy-geared sites we’ve seen - it’s no forum for helicopter parents. The moms behind the site, Liz and Kristen, have struck the perfect chord with women who see their role as mother as part of who they are rather than their entire selves. CMP’s writers shows moms that their own individuality and motherhood are perfectly compatible concepts, sharing always-cool product and service picks selected from non-mainstream, independent, often eco-friendly designers and companies.

From face cream for moms to organic cotton crib bedding for kids to safer anti-bacterial soap for the whole family, Cool Mom Picks always hits the nail right on the head. And they do it all without trying to convince real mothers they can’t live without that ridiculously overpriced stroller that Kate Hudson has, because none of their picks are paid for by advertisers. Click here to read more

Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Save to del.icio.us' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'> Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Digg It!' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'> Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Save to MySpace' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'> Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Reddit' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'> Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Sphere It' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'> Cool Mom Picks Shows Greenzer Some Love' title='Stumble It!' onclick='target="_blank";' rel='nofollow'>

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Could it be true? Did American auto finally snap out of its long denial that bigger is not better? Sort of - and all it took was an unprecedented spike in oil prices. GM announced today that it is shutting down 4 light truck and SUV plants and will shift its focus to building more fuel-efficient vehicles. Additionally, GM announced it will possibly sell its Hummer division, which has become the international poster boy of gas guzzling SUVs. The struggling automaker has felt the hurt of enormous losses over the last several years as its investments in large SUVs have fallen short of international automakers such as Toyota and Honda’s releases of smaller, “sippier” cars such as the Prius and Accord.

Click here to read more

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I am relatively impatient when it comes to waiting.  I am constantly scrolling through old emails as I wait for and sit on the subway; I find myself making calls while standing in lines; I even pay for express shipping on items that I don’t really need urgently.  If there is a particular type of waiting that drives me mad, it’s definitely flight delays.

As a native of Brazil, I developed a severe dislike for flight delays having to travel back and forth from South Florida to Sao Paulo two to three times per year (as a kid it was much easier to deal with thanks to my Game Boy). Given my disdain of flight delays, I cringed at a recent study by the U.S. Joint Economics Committee. The report showed that in 2007 alone, delayed flights consumed an additional 740 million gallons of fuel, resulting in a whopping $1.6 billion wasted and 7 million tons of carbon emitted for no reason.

Surprisingly, I also heard about recent efforts on the part of airlines that actually justified longer flights. By slowing down cruising speeds and tacking on a few extra minutes to each leg, airlines have shown that they can save millions of dollars in fuel and thousands of tons of carbon emissions. For example, Southwest Airlines projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

So, if the airlines can save money (and hopefully keep ticket prices at bay while energy prices keep skyrocketing), use less fuel (which helps out the environment and energy prices), and only add about 10 minutes to a nine hour flight from New York to Sao Paulo, I give it a solid two thumbs up!  After all, who is REALLY going to notice the difference, aside from your everyday macrophobiac (fear of long waits)?

But seriously, no more delays.

-Raphael, Greenzer Team - Business Development

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Wood Turner and the Climate Counts team have published the second annual Climate Counts Company Scorecard earlier today. In June 2007, Climate Counts released its first round of scores covering 56 consumer companies rating those companies on their commitment to fighting climate change. The 22 question scoring system assesses company actions in 4 key areas:

- Review of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

- Reduction of GHG emissions

- Policy Stance

- Reporting

This year, the average overall company score increased by 22%, to 39 out of 100 (up from 30 out of 100 last year). The biggest gainer was Google with a 38 point increase. 4 companies in the food services sector (Yum! Brands, Burger King, Darden Restaurants and Wendy’s) stand out the most for their inaction this year
and last year as well. All continue to have scores of 0 or 1 out of 100. The overall results are inspiring as 84% of companies improved their scores compared to last year.

At Greenzer, we’re working with Climate Counts on innovative solutions to make environmentally responsible shopping decisions easier for consumers. We have also included the Climate Counts scores of select electronics brands in the calculation of the Greenzer Score. (The Greenzer Scores will reflect the new Climate Counts data later today) Click here to read more

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Last night, as Earth Day came to a close, we launched the greenzer.com public beta. We’re very excited about this first important milestone and eager to continue to  build our service as THE shopping destination for greener products. We’re only getting started!

We launched the site with over 10,000 products from some of the web’s best retailers. We’ve highlighted some of the key green attributes for products to make the search easier and more informative.

We also launched the Greenzer Score on selected electronics and computer products. It brings together the extensive work of groups like Climate Counts and EPEAT in a 1 - 10 measure of greenness on hundreds of products.

Browse the site, share the news with your friends and drop us a line to tell us what you think. Happy greenzing!

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For the latest flavor in Greenzing, visit our transatlantic home away from home at www.greenzer.fr/blog. All it takes is a carbon-light click of the mouse, and you’ll land at our freshly launched blog focused on environmentally-preferable products and services available in France. If high school French classes haven’t faded away you’ll now be able to enjoy a double dose of daily Greenz.

The Greenzer France team is based in Paris and has been researching a wide variety of environmentally-preferable products, retailers and brands that they will be sharing on a daily basis. I’m very excited about the new dimension this adds to Greenzer and our renewed ability to provide a more global view on everyday green living…

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