Carrotmob Fights Global Warming

I want to share with you one of the most exciting videos I’ve seen in a long time. The video describes a burgeoning effort in San Francisco to harness the positive possibilities of social networking.

On March 29, 2008, the first Carrotmob swarmed K&D Market in San Francisco in a mass purchasing effort designed to fight global warming. Brent Schulkin, a 27 year old company game programmer with Google, developed the basic idea of choosing a store with inefficient lighting and equipment then inviting his friends to shop there and using the proceeds to upgrade the store to energy efficient fixtures and equipment. 



The fun community event kicked off at 1pm. With a bouncer at the door to ensure a safe number of people inside the little market, the line stretched to the end of the block. Store staff continuously restocked the shelves with liquor, cereal, organic peanut butter, tuna fish and other canned food. At the end of the day there were two overflowing barrels of donations for the San Francisco Food Bank and market receipts totaling $9,267, several thousands of dollars more than usual. Schulkin hosted an afterparty in San Francisco’s Dolores Park with two bands to wrap up the social event.

Doesn’t that sound like fun? Don’t you want to put together an event like this in your town? To my mind, the publicity and getting people to show up is relatively easy. The last mile issue of ensuring the energy efficiency measures are implemented is the tricky part. Here are some tips.

1.    Identify barriers  - Determine what the barriers would be with the business you want to work with. Do they know what energy efficiency measures need to be done? Do they know what utility rebates are available? Do they know who can install the new equipment?
2.    Find rebates - Check out www.dsireusa.org for a list of rebates in your state.
3.    Find auditors - Look on your utility’s website and your city’s website to determine if they provide free energy audits for small businesses. Schulkin worked with the San Francisco Energy Watch program and three energy efficiency engineer friends to help guide K&D Market.
4.    Follow up - Check back with the business on a regular basis to determine if they need assistance on implementation. Schulkin helped K&D Market use the proceeds to replace the store’s entire lighting system and all refrigerator gaskets.

Carrotmob has received e-mails from people in Australia, Brazil, Israel and South Africa wanting to do similar projects. Rather than flying around the world, with the associated carbon footprint, the Carrotmob’s team hopes people around the world will be empowered to run their own campaigns. Carrotmob aspires to eventually engage large companies and help steer their behavior in a more environmentally benign direction.

For more information, check out www.carrotmob.org. I'm planning a Carrotmob in my hometown in March. I'll make a video and blog about it. If you create your own carrotmob, let us know how it goes.