About a year ago, I signed up to offset the carbon emissions created by the electricity use of green LA girl readers’ computers while they’re on my site. That eco-move was FREE, thanks to CO2Stats.com. In exchange for putting a little widget on my sidebar (see the bottom left corner), the two PhD students who developed CO2Stats.com bought the offsets for me through a company called Sustainable Travel International.

However, I discovered today that CO2Stats.com is no longer free! Now, the company offers offsets at the cost of $4.95 a month and up.

So I called up CO2Stats.com to make sure my free widget was actually still offsetting my readers’ energy use — and was told that yes, I am indeed one of the lucky early adopters who get CO2Stats.com services for free, indefinitely.

Then the dude I was talking to asked me what my site was, to which I said green LA girl, to which he “reminded” me that I’m friends with Timothy Sullivan, one of the founders of CO2Stats.com.

I may have more Facebook friends than I can keep track of.

Anyway: The whole reason I started looking into CO2Stats.com is because a new company, VroomVroomVroom.com, is trying to do something similar via an initiative called GreenLogo.com.

Like CO2Stats.com did initially, GreenLogo.com will offset the carbon emissions created by the electricity use of readers’ computers while they’re on a particular site — in exchange for that site’s putting GreenLogo.com’s logo on its site. The offsets will be bought through The CarbonNeutral Company.

Unlike CO2Stats.com, whose only mission is offsetting the carbon footprint of websites, GreenLogo.com’s an eco-initiative (and eco-promotion) of a car rental biz, VroomVroomVroom.com, which basically aggregates the prices of car rentals in a particular place to point you to the cheapest deal.

Unfortunately, VVV doesn’t do its job very well. The cheapest deal it pointed me to for a car rental tomorrow was $42.63, so I tried Enterprise.com — which offered me $29.03. I’m not sure how long GreenLogo.com will survive, since after less than a minute, I’ve been convinced that its parent site’s useless.

In other carbon offsetting news: Brighter Planet, a carbon offsetting company, is offering to offset your emissions for a day — in exchange for your email address. I just calculated out that this offer’s an 82 cent value — so it’s up to you to decide if you’re willing to give your e-addy to Brighter Planet for that sum.

Last but not least: Carbon offsets should always be considered a last resort. If you drive a hummer, fly in private jets, and generally do lotsa uneco things like our governor does, then buying offsets really is just greenwashing.

This is why greenlagirl.com’s hosted by Aiso.net, which is solar-powered — vs. a “green” host that runs on conventional power but buys offsets. I mean, if you’re just going with a host that buys offsets, you may as well go with a conventional host and buy your own offsets….

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