An Open Invitation to Organizations that Support the Earth

Our Mission:
Our Mission at BuyforEarth.com is to provide funding for projects, products and entities that are actively pursuing the betterment of the Environment through Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Renewable Energy Projects and non-profit organizations.

In order to support our mission we attract concerned shoppers to make purchases through the BuyforEarth.com mall of over 250 stores (and growing). When they make a purchase, we receive commissions based on their purchases and allocate an astounding 95% (compare to 50-60%) of the commissions received to support the earth. We have committed to allow our members to allocate the funds that they create to the project of their choice that has listed with BuyforEarth.com. We are currently focused on building our list of projects/products/organizations which will make BuyforEarth.com a more attractive choice for prospective members.

The Invitation:
Our business model includes a listing fee to be included in the choices for our members. This listing fee is a nominal charge that supports the maintenance and marketing activities of BuyforEarth.com. We guarantee a level of support that covers the listing fee for the first year. Currently we are accepting listings that will begin now, but will expire on December 31, 2009. After the end of this year listings will be for a one year period.

For a limited time, we are offering to waive the listing fee, through December 31, 2009. This offer will be available for a limited time and will end for each category of listing when we determine that adequate choices are available to our members. Your request to list will still be evaluated against our criteria and if your product/project/organization is listed. You will pay nothing to be listed. In order to qualify for the waiver and be listed, you must agree to place a banner link or text link on your site, inviting your supporters/customers to do more when they shop online at BuyforEarth.com. We will customize the link to match your site's style, content and offering.

Even though we are waiving the listing fee, we are continuing the referral bonus program. When your site visitors follow the link, join BuyforEarth.com and make their first purchase, you will 'earn' additional support in the form of donations or purchases. BuyforEarth.com will commit 2 Points, paid for through our profits (not the member's earnings) to additional support or listed product purchases.

When you list your project at BuyforEarth.com we also provide links to your project, a discussion board on our community that allows you to share more about your project with our members and respond to questions about your project with our members. As BuyforEarth.com grows, we believe this will be a great resource for understanding our collective cause.

Learn More and Request Your Listing Today:

To summarize, if you accept our invitation and place a link on your page, you will pay no listing fee until January of 2010. Your supporters' purchases will allow them to increase their level of support to your project/product/organization. Your referrals to BuyforEarth.com that join and make their first purchase will add to your sales/contributions through our referral bonus program.

You can learn more about BuyforEarth.com by visiting our site at www.BuyforEarth.com. Get the details of the listing program at www.BuyforEarth.com/bfeproject.aspx and request your listing at www.BuyforEarth.com/bfeprojectlist.aspx.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Please share this invitation with your favorite projects/providers/organizations or others you know that would benefit from a FREE! listing on BuyforEarth.com.

More Reasons to BuyforEarth.com

We have been busy at BuyforEarth.com.

We have implemented new functionality that we are excited about, because it will make BuyforEarth.com a better place for our members to find the best deal on stuff they buy, discuss products and deals that they have found. Learn about and discuss the projects that they can support with the points they earn.

We launched our new community site, BuyforEarth.com Network!

You can visit and check it out. CLICK HERE.

While you are there, be sure to check out our other new addition...

We have laid out the Plans for a new 'Project' that will let you invest up to half of your earnings in your own future, while you are investing in the Earth's future.

It occurred to us that we have opportunities to support existing projects that are already creating emissions reductions and renewable energy, but we are missing the key component of supporting the development of new technologies that will fuel our future. So we came up with an idea to invest in new technologies and developed it into the BuyforEarth Renewable Energy Fund.

I won't rehash it here but here is the link to the current plan. You can start allocating your points to the fund now. It will be a while before we can actually start investing, but we are excited about the potential. Plus, we can offer you something a little more.

Check it out and Don't forget to Shop 'til Carbon Drops!!!

Economics 101 -- Create Demand, Get Supply

It's All About Economics
In my undergrad economics class I learned about the supply and demand curve. It’s pretty simple really, the supply and demand will balance where the profits are the highest and the profits are highest where the marginal price of a product is equal to the marginal cost of the product. What this really means is when demand increases above the supply, the price will increase and the supply will increase until matches the demand. It works the other way to. If supply increases the price will drop until the demand increases until it matches the supply.
Competition (also part of economics) dictates a switch from one product to an equivalent or similar product. When the price of a new product drops, more demand is created for the new product and suppliers shift production to creating the new product, reducing the supply of the old product and increasing its price.

Values Count
It is important to remember that Price and cost are not always money, it could be specific needs or time or beliefs or standards or law or compassion or any other value that an individual holds dear. Early adopters of new technology base their decision (which is, by definition, a rational decision) to purchase when the value exceeds the price.

It is economics that will create more renewable energy supply in the marketplace. Artificial stimulants are a way to increase demand and supply and move the product to the mainstream. We seek tax incentives to directly affect the price, enforce regulations to increase the supply and educate consumers to increase demand by changing needs or beliefs or any other non-monetary factor.

Competition Works
Competition is also very important, when demand begins to increase and supply begins to follow, suppliers will advance the technology to reduce the cost and increase the demand and eventually everybody agrees that the value exceeds the price and wants one. You have seen it hundreds of times. IPODs, cell phones, personal computers, etc…

More Is Better
We need more demand for Renewable energy sources in the marketplace. The right things are happening and will continue to happen to incubate the renewable energy market. Individuals (early adopters) are buying renewable energy at a premium price from their utilities, this is causing utilities to increase the supply and advance the technology. Demand increases, supply increases, technology increases, price will drop.

In order to get more renewable energy sources built and running and to make them economically viable we need to increase the demand. Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) give us a great opportunity to affect the demand and increase the supply. RECs are valuable to suppliers because they allow the marginal price to approach the marginal cost for the energy. Your decision must be rational, if you buy RECs it will be because the value is greater than the price you pay.

One Way To Increase Demand
BuyforEarth.com offers you an opportunity to buy RECs, increase the demand and move renewable energy toward the mainstream. We can’t do this by increasing the value or changing your beliefs. We do this by reducing the price you pay for renewable energy -- Your price is $0.00.

If you shop at BuyforEarth.com, you create a cash flow from the commissions earned. We allocate 95% of the commissions you earn for the purchase of Renewable Energy (buy RECs). You can even choose the types of renewable you support. When you ‘buy’ RECs through BuyforEarth.com you create more demand for Renewable Energy.

When you create more demand for Renewable Energy, you are advancing Energy Independence.

Did You Ever Get Distracted?

Today, I got distracted by, of all things, paper.

We go through day after day, printing, copying, tossing, scribbling, doodling and here in the back country, we even spend time figerin (figuring for you high society types). I printed a document today, double-sided of course, and had to wait about 20 minutes while some report printed on the high-speed copier at the office. Probably a case of paper, 5,000 sheets of paper, I 'figered' (in my head to save paper) that was about 25 lbs of paper.

Here is what got me distracted. What is that costing? Not $, but resources. I found a calculator that told me, but I lost it and then I found it again. Here it is! I didn't validate the results, but used it to conduct a little experiment.

What if we convinced 10,000 folks to switch one case of recycled (100% post consumer waste with virgin paper)? Would that make a difference? (I assumed we would all offset the power with RECs from Wind Energy).

Savings:

• 2400 trees preserved for the future


• 6930.23 lbs water-borne waste not created


• 1,019,460 gal wastewater flow saved


• 112,800 lbs solid waste not generated


• 222,100 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented


• 1,700,000,000 BTUs energy not consumed


• 115,400 lbs air emissions not generated


• 48 barrels crude oil unused

Would it make sense to take one small step? I'll let you decide. Cost compare the products. I'm seeing about $1.50 per ream more for 100% recycled. That's $15.00 more for the paper.

If 10,000 people joined BuyforEarth.com and bought it at TheGreenOffice.com (in the Office Category of the BuyforEarth.com mall) they would each earn 5 points...that is 50,000 points which would buy about 3,333 Renewable Energy Certificates (over 3 million KWh) or Offset another 5,000 tons of carbon (in addition to what using recycled paper reduces).

My thoughts:

You can't beat that with a stick