Why did Working Assets build a car carbon calculator?

Here at Working Assets, we understand that consumers can make change with their dollars. After all, we’re a company that for more than 20 years now has helped people make a difference through our donation-linked products, including mobile phones, long distance service and credit cards. Our philosophy is simple: make it easy to make the world a better place.

So in addition to urging Congress to pass legislation to help reduce global-warming pollution, we developed this site to help individuals figure out how they can reduce their contribution to global warming. Just pick two vehicles to compare and the number of miles you drive every year and we’ll spell out how many pounds of CO2 you could keep out of the atmosphere.

Go ahead, get rid of that hulking SUV for a more efficient station wagon. Or trade in your 15-year-old-hatchback for a spiffy new Prius. While you're at it, offset the remaining (smaller amount) of CO2 with a contribution to Carbonfund.org.

And once you’re done, tell us about it. We’re compiling all the pledges and carbon offsets made by the Drive Green community and have an ambitious goal of reducing global-warming pollution by half a billion pounds of CO2 this year.