Make Me Sustainable

Saving the earth one pixel at a time

By CHRISTINE LIU

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"It's a visualization of grassroots," explains Benjamin Brown of the virtual tree that shows how much impact my pals and I in aggregate have on the environment. With a click, I promise to eat locally grown foods 10 percent of the time; itty-bittily but surely, I've reduced our collective carbon footprint. W00t.

As a startup headed by Benjamin Brown (CEO), David Delcourt (COO) and Adam Schrader-Brown (CCO), Make Me Sustainable lets you create a social network of eco-curious friends, expanding into a more comprehensive portal to green living. The founders, with collective experience from corporate consulting to McSweeney's contributing, aim to combat global warming's "universal impact on all humanity," explains Schrader-Brown. Political agendas notwithstanding, it's simply about "sustaining life on the earth."

After pledging to perform tractable tasks like "replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs" or "wash clothes in cold water," you can see your nifty personalized graph update to show you how many tons of carbon -- and more importantly, how much money -- you can save over time. And being environmentally responsible is not all about organic denim or hybrid SUVs. It's mostly through "lifestyle changes that don't have any branding," according to Brown. "Being green seems like such a luxury," says Schrader-Brown, "but showing that living a life that's not green is wasting money -- that's the luxury."

Since the beta website launched in July '07, they've created an application for Facebook and are gearing up for the big time. They also have a partnership lined up with Reverb (reverbrock.org), a nonprofit organization that works to encourage musicians and fans to promote sustainability. The formal public launch of their collaboration will coincide with the Jose Gonzalez show on March 13 at the Paradise Rock Club. Make Me Sustainable's online "fan empowerment tool" will allow an entourage to collectively establish green-based band loyalty while they ostensibly rock out. "It's about mobilizing communities to push each other along in the process," says Brown.

Though you might not have the gumption to go completely meatless, you might opt instead to receive paperless bills and swill from a reusable coffee mug. The founders' dictum reassures: "Small things add up."

Catch them speak next at "Focus the Nation" on global warming, Thu. 1.31, 8:30am-11am at Suffolk University, Suffolk Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston.

[makemesustainable.com]