Yahoo! Looking for Greenest City in America

Yahoo! has issued a challenge–to find the greenest city in America. The winning city will get a fleet of hybrid taxi cabs–or a cash donation to be used towards “city greening projects. Yahoo! is helping you be more green by offering green-related content on their sites. By participating, you help your city earn points that helps your city.

Matt Dillon and Global Green USA have joined in effort to ‘Be a Better Planet’, which coincides with the Yahoo! introduction of the Yahoo! Green eco-site. To kick off the program, Yahoo! is donating a fleet of hybrid taxi cabs to New York City. It was recently determined that New York City produces one percent of all United States greenhouse gases.

The new Yahoo! Green is a new web site that Yahoo! wants to be a “one-stop resource for the growing number of environmentally-concerned consumers.” It’s designed to “inform and empower consumers with the latest news, tips, and ways to take action.” According to Yahoo!’s press release today, the site features a “personalized plan to protect the planet — a pledge that allows consumers to choose from a menu of actions to reduce their personal carbon emissions and see the collective impact of everyone who participates.”

“In the near future, it will include the latest environmental headlines from Yahoo! News; featured content from Global Green USA, Environmental Defense, NRDC, and Lime; blog feeds from environmental authority Amory Lovins, Environmental Defense’s chief scientist Bill Chameides and EcoGeek; green shopping tips; the 18Seconds.org site; relevant content from Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Groups, the Yahoo! Autos Green Center; with even more content and features to come.”

If you want to be more green, Yahoo! offers “lower carbon diets” with Yahoo! Green, Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Mobile. To participate in the “Be a Better Planet” promotion, you can do one or more of the following:

— Check out Yahoo! Answers: Help save the planet by answering an environmental question and contributing to the growing body of knowledge and advice on Yahoo! Answers;
— Check out Yahoo! oneSearch: Learn more about living a greener life by conducting a “green” mobile search on Yahoo! oneSearch, a new search service with results optimized for the mobile phone. Consumers can enter keywords such as “organic food,” “public transport,” “recycle center,” “bike,” and “ride share” to find relevant resources;
— Take the Green Pledge: Visit Yahoo! Green and commit to lowering their carbon diet by pledging such actions as changing light bulbs, taking public transportation, using reusable shopping bags, properly inflating tires, and recycling more.

When you participate, you earn “points” with each green action, and you contribute to your hometown’s overall ranking. The overall ranking will be visible nearly in real-time on an interactive national map. You will also get a free energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), while supplies last.

According to Yahoo!, they have a long track record of supporting environmental sustainability both in its operations and on its global network. The company uses renewable power, hydroelectric energy, and passive cooling at its various facilities and data centers. Its award-winning commute alternatives program offers incentives such as Wi-Fi enabled biodiesel shuttles and generous public transit subsidies. The company has also launched several sustainability-focused product initiatives, including an annual Earth Day resource site (earth.yahoo.com), the Yahoo! Autos Green Center, and 18Seconds.org, dedicated to educating Americans about the cost-savings and environmental benefits of CFL bulbs.

Yahoo! recently replaced incandescent light bulbs with CFLs on its billboards in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and announced that it will become carbon neutral in 2007.

Global Green USA is a national environmental organization and is the US affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross International. To learn more about their work on green cities, sustainable building, and other smart solutions to global warming, check out the Global Green site.

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!’s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world’s knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.