Brighter Planet

These and 26 other inspiring case studies of social entrepreneurs can be read about in their own words in The Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World.

Inspired by a forward-thinking Environmental Economics professor at Middlebury College* (see below) in Vermont, Jake Whitcomb and Andy Rossmeissl turned a class project into a growing business. Together, they created the Brighter Planet Visa™, a rewards-based credit card that provides the opportunity for consumers in the United States to contribute to renewable energy projects and fight global warming with every purchase.



Despite the fact that Jake and Andy didn’t know each other when they started taking the course, they were both drawn to the notion that for the first time in history “the environment” and “economics” were not only being talked about in the same sentence, but in fact taught as complementary subjects. They learned that environmental problems could be solved by implementing an innovative economic lens.

   
Andy (left) and Jake (right), founders of Bright Planet

Professor Jon Isham, who had just finished co-authoring a book called Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement, focused much of Jake and Andy’s course on service-learning, encouraging each student to develop a business plan or project that moved beyond the classroom. So with 2005 census and credit figures, Jake and Andy sat down with a spreadsheet to get a handle on the numbers, and found an incredible coincidence: through their theoretical rewards program the average credit-card carrying American could exactly offset his or her annual carbon footprint of twenty-three tons.

Moving beyond the excitement of the idea, however, is when their challenges grew to become an incredibly steep learning curve. The young entrepreneurs were confronted with the practical difficulties of starting a business, and even admit, "When we began, we didn't even know...how to retain lawyers, secure health insurance, and hire a bookkeeper. Finding the answers to the nuts and bolts questions are critical and tough."

After presenting the business plan at the Cool Air-Cool Planet conference in New York City, and received some serious feedback from leaders in the field including Bill McKibben, Andy and Jake quit their summer jobs to dedicate fully to the business, starting small by raising $25,000 from family and friends. They then hired a CEO who believed in their vision, teamed with Bank of America, and eventually released the Brighter Planet Visa at the end of 2007.

For more on Jake and Andy’s helpful advice as to how they overcame obstacles in starting their business, read the story in their own words at http://www.tacticsofhope.org/resources.  Brighter Planet plans to offset several million tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of shutting down a coal plant for an entire year, by 2010.


*Testament to the kind of undergrad educational environment (thanks to Professor Isham) that spawned Jake and Andy’s innovative venture, as well as this blogger’s interest in the field of social entrepreneurship, Middlebury College was recently recognized by Sierra Magazine for its leadership in the climate change movement as the “coolest” college in the country. ( ;