Support organizations that are battling climate change this month with replyforall for Earth Month.

The way CEC sees it, the adoption of clean energy will lower the long term cost and environmental impact of energy use, resulting in healthier communities that are wiser in their use of energy and more self reliant and secure in their energy supply. Clean Energy Coalition (CEC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that started in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is dedicated to promoting clean energy technologies as a way to create healthier, energy independent communities. Their efforts help to reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere, and to slow the effects of climate change.

To learn what CEC has accomplished, check out a video on one of their projects, Michigan Energy $ense.  Through building and site audits, CEC can evaluate a commercial or residential building’s energy efficiency and resulting energy costs.  In addition, they also run sustainability analysis, which includes assessments of indoor air quality, storm water management strategies, and sustainable landscape recommendations, as well as determining green material options and waste reduction strategies.   And if you’re curious if your building has the potential for renewable energy, CEC can tell you that, too!

While CEC is dedicated to raising public awareness of energy efficiency, the organization also works, with the help of state and federal grants, to make renewable energy (such as wind and solar) more cost-effective and therefore competitive with other sources of energy.  One of their projects, Solar America Cities, is working in Ann Arbor to make solar power (through photovoltaic cells) cost-competitive with conventionally-delivered energy (oil, coal, etc.) by the year 2015. To learn more about their programs, check out their website.  The site also gives some great basic facts about renewable energy. If you have Twitter, you can follow one of CEC staff members, Robyn, and track their progress.

The underlying principle of ClimateCounts.org is simple: Business has the power to change the world, and you have the power to change business.  Many of us don’t realize that we support not only business of products we buy, but– in voting with our dollar– support their business practices.  For those of us who do understand the concept of voting with our dollar, it can become difficult to traverse through business practices, do the research, and rank them all before we go to get a bite to eat or restock our sock drawer.

Enter ClimateCounts.org.  They rank companies based on the environmental effect of business practices and give them a score which consumers can view before deciding to spend their money.

The goal of scoring companies is to motivate deeper awareness among consumers-not only that the issue of climate change demands their attention, but also that they have the power to support companies that take climate change seriously – and avoid those that don’t.

You can take a look at how your favorite companies compare in the fight against global warming, and search companies based on business sector, all through the ClimateCounts.org website.  It’s on a scale of 0 to 100, based on criteria of whether the company has measured its climate footprint, reduced their impact, supported progressive climate legislation, and publicly disclosed their actions to the public.  The higher the score, the more committed a company is to environmentally friendly practices.  For instance, Disney has a score of 25, Google has a score of 55, and Burger King has a score of 0.  If you see something your like or don’t like, the site even gives you a link to email that company and tell them that you are paying attention and want to see change (or want to see them keep up the good work!).  You can follow ClimateCounts on Twitter, too!

replyforall is very excited to provide its users the opportunity to donate money to these organization just by using email.  You can put CEC or ClimateCounts.org in your email signature along with the fight global warming cause, and spread the news about these innovative organizations!

Just 12 of us using replyforall drives enough donations in a month to allow our partners ClimateCounts.org and Clean Energy Coalition take 1 car off the road for a month, or prevent 500 kg of CO2 from entering our skies. So spread the word and fight global warming through your inbox!