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Smartlygreen.com has been created in the belief that the majority of us actually do care about the environment and of the need to live in balance with the planet but are unsure how to start achieving this. Smartlygreen.com is intended to provide an easy starting point.

At this stage it is worth commenting that we are just ‘normal’ people who have a genuine concern for what is happening in the world and a desire to do something about it. However for this to happen, we believe the environmental debate has to be moved into the mainstream and be made far more relevant to us all.

Everyday we are hit with an increasing flow of information warning us of the consequences of the growing environmental imbalance. The range of advice on how to tackle it is confusing and ranges from fitting energy saving lightbulbs to something a little more profound such as limiting the number of children we have. The issues are undoubtedly complex and controversial with hard core environmentalists insisting that we should all adopt significant lifestyle changes. As honourable as these assertions are, and as unfortunate as this might seem, the reality of life is that this is unlikely to happen. Not in the short term.

For a start the environmental forecasts for the future are so doom laden that it is difficult for us to see enough of a relationship between installing a CO2 friendly appliance in the home and such things as rising sea levels. Until a meaningful cause and effect relationship is outlined with clarity and relevance then it is unlikely that we will change our lifestyles. At the moment the way that the various ‘green’ messages are evangelised and the methods used to communicate them gives the impression that the problem is too complex and remote. The result is that we find it hard to relate to either the messages or the messengers.

The majority of us are far too concerned with day to day demands such as paying the mortgage, providing for one’s family and generally coping with the normal daily pressures of life. It is against this background that the environmental message struggles to get heard. Make it too remote and it doesn’t stand a chance. It needs to be far more local and meaningful for it to be given serious consideration by the majority of us.

We at smartlygreen.com believe that the first step is for all of us to become aware of the effect of our own carbon footprint and to provide a way to offset it. We provide a way of doing this painlessly. In fact we even give financial rewards for doing so.

We have taken the highest standards available for carbon offsetting by using a charity called PURE (the fact that PURE is a registered charity is especially important) that buys only Kyoto compliant offsets. This therefore is not about the much criticised schemes involved in things like planting trees but is instead focussed on meaningful, effective and accountable global projects. Moreover we are making it is easy for people to make a solid contribution to the issue and giving them a way to do so without changing anything about their lifestyle and by earning money in the process.

We must however stress that this is phase one of smartlygreen.com. By bringing the issues into everyday lives painlessly and providing the relevant arguments then we will all be able to make more informed choices. Any resultant actions will have much longer lasting effect and be more readily embraced by all of us than anything that is imposed.

Over time we will introduce more and more ‘green’ products and services and communicate the alternatives that are available. We will attempt to present the arguments in a logical relevant way so that the benefits can easily be seen. We will search for environmentally meaningful alternatives to the sorts of things many of us take for granted.

An understanding of what like minded people are doing in their own lives is also important as it makes us feel that we are not alone in wanting to do something. Consequently we hope to generate a sense of community and have made available a social networking component as part of smartlygreen.com. People can pass on ‘green’ tips to each other and to share experiences. There will also be many other initiatives so please do watch this space.

Basically then we are trying to take the debate into the mainstream so that the issues do stand a chance of featuring in all of our daily lives. We intend to present things in a far more meaningful and relevant way which we don't believe has been the case do far. We fundamentally believe that unless our hearts, minds and imaginations are inspired then change will not happen. Smartlygreen.com was created to help achieve that aim.

Needless to say we welcome all comments and so please feel free to e-mail us.