Our roots
It all began in the Spring of 2005 when we were part of a small team in Professor Jon Isham's Environmental Economics course at Middlebury College. While looking for ways to help bring carbon offsets to the mainstream, we (with the help of Jon's dad) struck upon the idea of tying them to a credit card as a reward. After presenting our idea to the Clean Air-Cool Planet conference that summer, Jon and the two of us decided to keep working on the project. A few spreadsheets and many more cups of coffee later, Brighter Planet was born.
We set up shop in a two-room office in December 2005 and got to work building a coalition of environmental and social organizations to help refine the model and get the word out. In Summer 2006, we officially founded the company and assembled an all-star Advisory board who helped us make sure we were getting both the environmental and business sides of things right. Fueled by daily dips in the New Haven River, we found our way through the start-up maze and by the fall had raised enough interest to bring on some heavy-hitters.
That's when we put a real businessperson at the helm: Patti Prairie, a former IBM and American Express executive now living in Vermont. Always ready with stern advice and kind words alike, Patti got Brighter Planet in shape and put us on track for the launch of our Brighter Planet Visa card from Bank of America. We developed our Carbon offset policy and formed a partnership with NativeEnergy, the country's leading offset provider and our neighbor up the road. This year we've been lucky enough to attract the talented Seamus Abshere, Robbie Adler, and Emily Wheeler. And now comes the fun part: we'd like to invite you to join us in our work to fight global warming and build a clean-energy future. Start a profile, learn how to conserve where you can, and use our credit card to help offset the rest.
— Jake and Andy