Beginning today, Google has begun providing bicycle directions for its Google Maps service with directions for cyclists in 150 cities in the United States. Google already incorporates public-transit and walking directions in addition to automobile driving directions, and the bicycling community has been calling for Google to add bike routes for some time.

The routing suggested for cyclists is designed to avoid freeways and high-traffic areas, and to select gentler terrain by routing around hills. To make it even more useful for riders on the go, Google expects to have a mobile version available in the near future, as well.

Photo via Andrew Evans of the National Geographic.

King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance -- but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a "one in a zillion kind of mutation," biologists say that the animal has lost control of its pigmentation, an occurrence that is extremely rare. Other than the penguin's monochromatic outfit, the animal appears to be perfectly healthy -- and then some. "Look at the size of those legs," said one scientist, "It's an absolute monster."

The under-dressed penguin was photographed by Andrew Evans of National Geographic on the island of South Georgia near Antarctica. As the picture circulated, some biologists were taken aback -- including Dr. Allan Baker of the University of Toronto. His first response was disbelief:

Wow. That looks so bizarre I can't even believe it. Wow.

While multicolored birds will often show some variation, Dr. Baker explains that what makes this all-black King Penguin so rare is that the bird's melanin deposits have occurred where they are typically not present -- enough so that no light feathers even checker the bird's normally white chest.

Andrew Evans:

Melanism is merely the dark pigmentation of skin, fur -- or in this case, feathers. The unique trait derives from increased melanin in the body. Genes may play a role, but so might other factors. While melanism is common in many different animal species (e.g., Washington D.C. is famous for its melanistic squirrels), the trait is extremely rare in penguins. All-black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject -- biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin we saw appears to be almost entirely (if not entirely) melanistic.

Whether or not the all-black look catches on in the penguin fashion world, it's nice to see someone dressing-down for once.

Stephen Messenger is a correspondent at TreeHugger, where this post originally appeared.

More from TreeHugger

• TreeHugger Goes to Antarctica, Meets Penguins, Seals, and More
• Marine Protected Areas Are Crucial to Save the African Penguin
• David Burdeny's Incredible Iceberg Photography: TreeHugger

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

Fourteen years ago, I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).  Doctors told me that there was nothing they could do to help ease my discomfort and pain, except that I should watch my diet, reduce stress, and get lots of exercise.

I attempted numerous alternative therapies and cut out meats, fermented foods, hot and spicy foods, and dairy products.  However, it took three years ago before someone recommended that I eliminate wheat from my diet.  Until this time, it had never occurred to me that wheat, or gluten, could be the source of my ailments.

I have been wheat-free for over ten years now and gluten-free for about seven.  My “IBS” is all but gone, and I lead a very healthy and normal life.  My story isn’t uncommon; in fact, it has become increasingly common for people who suffer from a broad range of symptoms from lethargy to liver disease.

The over-consumption of wheat and gluten in our modern-day North American diet is seen to be a thread in many illnesses.  Fortunately for us, as Celiac disease and gluten intolerance become more common, so does the availability of gluten-free products.

I know how difficult it can be to commit to a gluten-free lifestyle change. Our relationship with food changes and so do our social interactions.  It can be more difficult to dine out or eat with friends and it takes more conscious menu planning.  However, the positive impacts of going gluten-free on our health and on the planet can be astounding.

By going gluten-free, you are inherently eliminating many processed foods from your diet and introducing a variety of whole foods.  By switching from wheat flour to flour made from almonds, quinoa, or buckwheat (among others) you enhance your intake of nutrients and minerals while reducing your carbon footprint. A win-win situation if I do say so myself!

So for those of you who are new to being gluten-free, fear not!  The following resources will help you get the information and support you need, as well as show you a few of my favourite products that I am sure you’ll be happy with.

Resources:
www.celiac.com
www.glutenfreemall.com
www.americanceliac.org
www.celiac.ca
http://glutenfreenetwork.com

Recipes:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
http://www.julesglutenfree.com/
http://www.elanaspantry.com/

Gluten-free products I love:
Kinnikinnick
Gluten-Free Pantry/Glutino
El Peto

More from ecomii:

• Discover healthy soy snacks
• Five ways to spot green laundry products
• Learn more about the potential of nutritional supplements
• What is your carbon footprint?
• What is a cap and trade system and how will it affect you?

(Photo: Ford)

The Daily Green recently had the chance to interview Sue Cischke by phone from her office in Dearborn, Mich. The 54-year-old Vice President for Sustainability, Environment, and Safety Engineering is, according to her employer, Ford, the highest ranking woman in the automotive industry.

You are Ford's VP for Sustainability, Environment, and Safety Engineering, and you've been leading the company's environmental efforts since 2001.

In that position, you are the top female boss in the automobile industry -- why do you think there aren't more women in your position?

It's a bigger question about women in the auto industry in general. I've been in the industry for 34 years. It's kind of scary to say that but in May it will be 34 years, so I've been through a lot of different ups and downs with the industry in general, but I've had a chance to see the broad industry.

In this position you need people with technical skills and there are not usually a lot of women with engineering backgrounds, and that's probably one reason. Which is not to say you can't do this without that kind of emphasis, but my problem solving in engineering and other things has helped...

Are there any lessons you have for young women starting out in business?

That really makes me feel old. I think it's as true in automotive as anywhere else, you see more women involved in all aspects of all companies. For us in the automotive industry, 84% of the buying decisions on automobiles are influenced by women, so it makes sense to have women involved in all aspects of designing the car.

Things are a lot different from when I entered the workforce. It's still not a huge percent of women selecting engineering as a profession, and specifically automotive. That's just the way things are and we're continuing to have an open culture to encourage everybody to participate at all levels.

You'd encourage men as well as women to take on technical jobs and technical training and background... We have a professional women's network here at Ford that I'm a champion for and it gives us a chance to network...

Normally, I'd be most interested in talking to you about sustainability and the environment first, but I'm most curious right now about what everyone is most curious about: Can we trust our hybrid cars? Specifically can we trust the brakes and the accelerators, given that we've seen problems with the industry leader in the category, the Prius?

I saw at least one complaint in the NHTSA database about braking problems with the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid. And I've heard of reports about unintended acceleration in the Ford F150 pickup. Is Ford concerned about any of its models?

No, not at all. We have a very robust process within Ford that we do monitor and investigate issues that come to us. The issue on the Fusion was only one complaint... In our system on the Hybrid (Fusion, pictured; photo by Ford), on some rare situations where there's a brake fail situation, there would be a brake light and chime... The chime and light will indicate that there's a change in the brake feel. If the regenerative braking, there's software in the vehicle that says if there's any doubt on how effectively the regenerative braking system -- default to hydraulic braking system. It should be seamless, but the pedal travel feels a little different.

The programming we did when you should look to this and when you should not, it was way too sensitive. We went back and tuned that up so that it would be very rare that it would ever have to do that. When you would do that and you have different pedal feel, you would get a chime and a light to alert the driver that it feels differently... We did a customer satisfaction campaign... For all intents and purposes they all get a letter mailed to their home as if there's a safety recall, but there aren't recall consequences with it.

In this case we describe to the customer that this is available to them, no charge. That's why we use that method. The customer will get the notification in the mail just like any other campaign.

Do you think the problems at Toyota coupled with the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, where you started your career, have given Ford a new opening in the marketplace?

Ford has got a good plan that we have in place, and it helps for us to have a successful year last year and we have a lot of optimism this year if the economy continues to improve. We didn't have to take the government money, and we're very proud of the fact that we've been able to do this on our own. We do have a different balance sheet to contend with. They have more debt to wipe out but we didn't go through the bankruptcy...

You've got several cars and SUVs that get better than 30 mpg, but many that do not. What are we going to see happening to your fleet as the higher CAFE standards kick-in, requiring a fleetwide average of 35.5 mpg by 2016?

We do have a plan about how we are going to approach that. We've been saying all along that it will be some segmentation shifting. We will have the Fiesta. We had the Focus. This year will be the first launch of the new Focus. (Pictured; photo by Jim Motavalli.) That will be a popular vehicle with high fuel efficiency.

All the vehicles we're introducing will be at the top of their category for fuel efficiency. Ninety percent of our offerings by 2013 will have EcoBoost engines as an option. That is one area where we direct injection and turbocharge so we boost for power and downsize for fuel efficiency so we're getting up to 20% improvement on the small engine for the large engine that people would have been buying.

(Other improvements, she said, would be more electric power-assistance systems, improved aerodynamics, and a "weight loss reduction" of between 250 and 750 pounds on a typical vehicle.)

You don't just do one big thing, but you do a lot of little things. We do have a plan that will get us to the numbers in 2016 and beyond.

We expect a new electric car from Ford, based on the Focus. When we will see this, how many, and what will it cost?

We already announced that Transit Connect is a battery electric vehicle to be produced this year. Next year, the 2011 battery electric Focus -- an all-electric vehicle off the Focus platform. The following year we'll have a brand new hybrid and a plug-in hybrid and a C-sized Focus-sized platform. We have four new electric vehicles, 2 battery electric and one plug-in on the Focus C-sized platform.

Do you believe global warming requires federal legislation to address?

We've been very strong saying we need an energy policy for the company. We're supporting a cap-and-trade system that would be economy wide. We recognize there are a lot of challenges to bring that together... We're already the most carbon-constrained industry... We have fuel economy tied to carbon emissions. EPA and NHTSA will finalize rule in March. I can say we're probably further ahead than any other sector. We need the others to step up.

We are probably the most expensive sector when it comes to controlling carbon. Three hundred to five hundred dollars per ton of CO₂ is the cost of putting an electric vehicle on the road. Improvements on electric generation and other sectors is five to ten dollars a ton. At some point in time, someone has to want these vehicles and with the price of fuel so low it's hard to justify someone paying extra for these vehicles. There's still a mismatch. The environment doesn't care where the CO₂ reductions come from. The economy does.

What's the single most important thing that you think needs to happen to address global warming?

I think we need an energy policy. We need to understand where our energy's coming from long-term... When I look at Brazil, they made a conscious effort to reduce their dependency on oil with sugarcane-based ethanol. It took them years to stick with the course. They established the right subsidies and gradually got to a point where people are consciously making a choice about whether to use gasoline or ethanol...

We tend to get in and get out, and no one really knows where to put their investments. Where do venture capitalists put their money? Today we're subsidizing oil companies based on blending gasoline to 10% ethanol. Where is that money really going? We have to have policies that encourage conservation and a long-range plan about where we are going to get our energy from. (Photo: Don Farrall / Getty Images.)

More from The Daily Green

• How to Pay 69 Cents a Gallon for Gas
• The Best Fuel-Efficient SUV Crossovers
• The Most Fuel-Efficient 2010 Vehicles
• 7 Affordable Fuel-Efficient Cars
• 10 Ways to Save 20% on Gas Every Day

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

Dr. Shukri Souri of Exponent: Explaining the Toyota pedal
issues on Monday. (Photo: Toyota )

From a public relations point of view, this one is for the record books. Just after Toyota staged a lavish webcast to try and put sudden acceleration behind it, a Prius ran wild to 90 mph on a California highway, resulting in sensational coverage on every website, TV station and newspaper in America.

But the real story was a bit more subtle: The 2008 Prius driven by hapless motorist James Sikes had not been "fixed" by Toyota (he claims he was turned away from his dealership) but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) "defects and recalls" database has recorded more than 60 sudden acceleration incidents in cars that were fixed.

Here are a few, just involving 2010 Camrys:

"I own a 2010 Camry. I just had the recall done last week. Since the work has been done, I have had nothing but problems with the idle and the engine. Before the recall was done, I never had a problem. Something needs to be done before more people are killed."

"My vehicle has been recalled and 'repaired' -- gas pedal, floor mat, brake override system. Prior to the recall, the gas pedal was sluggish and I would experience mini, sudden accelerations. There has been no improvement since the repairs (done March 2). In fact, it appears to have become more frequent. The sudden accelerations are not dramatic and braking does take care of the problem."

"While parking my 2010 Camry at the grocery store, I slowly turned into the parking space and my car suddenly accelerated, jumping the curb and hitting a cement surrounded light pole ... I was not noticeably injured. The car had just had the replacement pedal installed on March 2, 2010 as ordered by the recall."

And here are a few involving the 2010 Prius, which has a separate acceleration problem connected with braking over broken pavement:

"Since I purchased the car in September of 2009, the brakes fail when I am braking and hit a bump, pothole or uneven road surface. The brakes fail for a second or two, and sometimes the car lurches forward ... On March 6, 2010 I had the recall software for the 2010 Prius done in the service department at the Mike Calvert Toyota dealership in Houston, Texas. On the way home, I experienced the brake failure again when I was braking and drove over a small pothole."

"I visited my local dealership for repair of the brake recall of the 2010 Prius in early February. I do not believe that this repair has fixed the problem. A few days after the fix, my car seemed to accelerate as I was braking and happened to be going over a pothole."

I'm aware there is such a thing as the power of suggestion, and the fact that runaway Toyotas are blanketing the news may make some people see problems where they don't necessarily exist. After Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast in the 1930s, many people reported seeing his Martians or Venusians or whatever they were.

John Hanson, a Toyota spokesman, said to me, "It makes no difference if the car has been repaired or not: If there has been an incident reported, we have to investigate and see what caused it. Out of more than a million cars repaired in the recall, there have been a very small number of complaints, which we are investigating. The number is not necessarily significant."

Hanson told me, as did another spokesman, Mike Michels, during the Toyota webcast yesterday, "We have a couple of cases of errors being made in the installation of the remedy. It's a handful of cases."

Toyota, with its recalls, apologies and reassuring commercials, keeps trying to put sudden acceleration behind it, but the genie refuses to stay in the bottle. The Christian Science Monitor got to the heart of the issue when it said, "[I]n playing defense, Toyota is not addressing owners' and buyers' core concern: Is my car safe?"

ABC-TV investigative reporter Brian Ross, whose reporting sparked the Toyota webcast, told me via email today, "I'm on vacation this week but it seems there are still many open [questions] about Toyota and its insistence of no electrical or computer problems."

David Gilbert, the Southern Illinois University professor who ignited the most recent round of bad publicity by testifying before Congress that he had found an electronic glitch in Toyota's pedal systems, informed me via email that he will meet next week with Toyota's hired consulting company, Exponent. "I am committed to working with industry, government and other interested[ed] parties and hope to provide more conclusive opinions and input as more research and analysis is completed," he said.

Here's Bloomberg News in a video report on the latest events:

The real question now: Is there a "ghost in the machine" -- a software problem -- that is causing this intractable problem? "There isn't a ghost issue out there," Toyota's Kristen Tabar said during the webcast yesterday, and the company continues to express confidence in its electronic systems.

Hanson also says there's no electronic gremlin, or at least Toyota hasn't found one. "We have investigated this many times, and it is also gone over in the R&D process," he said. "We have yet to find any evidence of a software issue, or the 'ghost in the machine' that people are trying to find. If there was one, it would have occurred many, many times. Our computers compare notes with each other in milliseconds, and there are layers of fail-safe that would make it pretty darn tough for anything like that to happen." But Hanson also said that engineers "never say never," and that both Toyota and Exponent are continuing their probes.

More from The Daily Green

• Toyota Sudden Acceleration Problems Spread Through Industry
• The Eight Weirdest Fuels That Go Beyond Gas
• Nine Real People Making a Difference
• "Doomsday Seed Vault" Reaches New Milestone
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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

Cecilia Cassini is definitely not your average 10-year-old child. The fifth grader recently founded her own fashion line and is making a profit from selling her unique handmade clothing for kids and teens at Los Angeles boutiques. She's also been filling special orders that are coming in from around the world, according to her mother Michelle Cassini.

Cassini has been dubbed "America's youngest fashion designer," but that's only part of her story. She's a kid with a huge social conscience and a desire to give back. Many of her dresses, for example, are made from old repurposed clothing that she scores from the closets of her older sister, mom, and friends instead of buying new fabrics.

This not only saves her money on materials, but also is better for the planet. Her mother thinks that her dresses are popular in places like Germany, Italy, and France because they are made from recycled materials.

The young fashion maven regularly designs and donates dresses to raise money for charities such as Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and Clothes Off Our Backs. She also gives her dresses to homeless girls. "I want to give back to the people who don't have what I have," she says. "Every little girl should have a dress so I wanted to donate dresses."

Cassini, who lives in Encino, California, travels to classrooms at other schools to inspire her peers to pursue their dreams and do what they are passionate about. Her message: You don't have to be an adult to do worthwhile things.

According to her mom, Cassini's passion has always been clothing. From the time Cassini could point, she was putting together her own outfits, and she regularly came home from preschool with designs painted or glued onto her clothing.

But it wasn't until Cassini secretly "redesigned" her older sister's brand-new dress at the ripe old age of five that her family fully understood just how interested she was in designing clothing.

She received a sewing machine for her sixth birthday from her grandmother and went immediately to work. "From the moment she got that machine, she has not stopped sewing," says her mom, who didn't expect Cassini's interest to last for so long or turn into a business.

In fact, Michelle Cassini was worried that no one was going to show up at her daughter's first trunk show at Tough Cookies Children's Boutique in Sherman Oaks, California, on November 14, 2009. It turns out her worries were unfounded.

People lined up outside the store before it opened, thanks to some good publicity, including a CBS segment and a front-page story in the Los Angeles Daily News. Her trunk show was sold out and she's been busy filling orders ever since.

Cassini seems to be taking her early success in stride and finds time to sew dozens of dresses a week, maintain good grades, play tennis, and hang out with her friends. How does she do it? She gets most of her homework done at recess so she can come home and sew.

Besides, she doesn't view it as work. The whole process is pure fun, according to Cassini, from the cutting up of old dresses to sewing them into fabulous new "masterpieces" to selling the finished products.

All photos courtesy of Michelle Cassini.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green's users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

Image credit: AP Photo

A small frog that had been declared extinct more than 30 years ago has been rediscovered in Australia. Litoria castanea, better known as the "yellow-spotted bell frog" or the "tablelands bell frog," was found in a creek bed on private property by biologists Luke Pearce and David Hunter.

Hunter, who is a frog expert with the New South Wales Environment Department, commented that "this was definitely the most exciting moment of my career and I will be surprised if I repeat it." He went on to say that the discovery highlights the important roll property owners play in conservation efforts.

He explained:

The property owner at this particular site is extremely excited about having this critically endangered frog species on his land, and is very much looking forward to working with us in collaboration towards the conservation of the bell frog.

The exact location of the discovery will remain a secret to protect the fragile frog population and the homeowner's property.

State Environment Minister Frank Sartor said he was "advised that finding this frog is as significant a discovery as a Tasmanian tiger."

One of the frogs and a tadpole were collected and brought to Sydney's Taronga Zoo where biologists and conservationists hope to establish a captive breeding program.

David DeFranza is assistant editor at Treehugger, where this post originally appeared.

More from TreeHugger

• 10 Animals That Will Be Extinct Within Your Lifetime
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Photo: Tony Crider/Flickr

Okay friends, this is as much for me as it is for you. I have become lazy when it comes to using coupons at the store. I don’t spend much time tracking them down. The few I have, I forget to take to the store with me most of the time.

 

So I’m gathering a list of websites to visit while I’m creating my grocery list. These are websites that offer coupons on the foods that I buy — some frequently, some infrequently. You can save up to 30% on healthy staples such as milk, yogurt, meat, and more. Of course, how much you save depends on the prices at your local grocery store. 

 

These are sites that offer access to coupons immediately, but in some cases you need to register to get access. Once you register, you'll likely receive email newsletters, but those newsletters might have more money-saving offers in them.

 

There are many other manufacturers that don’t have immediate coupons on their sites, but they send out coupons in newsletters if you sign up for them. I’ll leave them for another blog post.

 

• Arm & Hammer – A while back, home blogger Matt told us how to clean naturally with Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. You can get coupons for Arm & Hammer products after registering on this site.
• Bordon – Organic milk coupon.
• Brown Cow – Register to get e-coupons on Brown Cow’s yogurts.
• Coleman – Complete a quick survey and get $5 in coupons for Coleman’s natural and organic meats. Save around 17% on bacon depending on where you live. 
• Earthbound Organics – You have to work for this one. Take a quiz about organics, score 100 percent, and get a coupon. Save up to 26% on salad mixes depending on the prices at your local store. 
• Earth’s Best – Coupons for organic baby food, infant formula, and toddler snacks.
• Laura’s Lean Beef – Sign up for the newsletter and receive an instant e-coupon.
• Lighthouse – You need to sign up to receive a coupon good for Lighthouse products including organic salad dressings.
• Hill’s Science Diet Pet Food – Natural dog and cat food coupons. Must register.
• Horizon – Sign up to get access to the coupons.
• Marzetti – Marzetti has a line of organic salad dressings and dips.
• Mombo Sprouts – Lots of various coupons for different natural and organic products. Changes frequently.
• Newman’s Own – The site allows you to print coupons twice and lets you know when the coupons will change so you can get the new ones when they go up. You can use 50 cent coupons on numerous products. Count on saving around 25% on lemonade, 20% on salsa, and 16% on salad dressings and pasta sauces depending on the prices at your local store. 
• Organic Valley – Coupons for organic milk, eggs, cheese, and butter. Save as much as 30% on a half-gallon of organic milk depending on prices at your grocery store. 
• Pacific Foods – Coupons for soups, beverages, and frozen foods. I love the creamy tomato soup.
• R.W. Knudsen – Register for coupons for natural juices.
• Santa Cruz – Organic beverage and peanut butter coupons.
• Seeds of Change – Organic rice, pasta, and chocolate.
• Simply Organic – Coupons for a variety of Simply Organic products.
• Seventh Generation – Register and get instant access to coupons for household products. Save up to 27% on dish-washing liquid depending on prices at your grocery store. 
• Stonyfield – You need to register for access to the e-coupons. Save around 20% on a box of organic yogurt tubes depending on prices at your store. 
• Tribe Hummus – Tribe makes an all-natural hummus and an organic hummus.

Remember, any of these sites can change or omit their coupons at any time.

 

• Six foods we could lose in an outbreak
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A new report from technology research corporation iSuppli warns that we're facing a global LED shortage in 2010.  Hooray!

Why am I cheering?  Because the reason for this shortage is a huge surge in demand for the energy-efficient lighting in the electronics industry.  Yes, it's bad that the supply is low, but it's great news that the use of more efficient lighting is becoming more mainstream.

The report says that demand for LEDs is expected to rise by double-digit percentages for at least the next three years.  In 2009, 63 billion units were consumed out of the 75 billion unit capacity worldwide.  The worst-case scenario is a rise in prices for mid-range and high-end computers and HDTVs because of their larger displays.

The solution is simple enough though:  increase production.  The two largest suppliers have gotten the hint -- Aixtron and Veeco Instruments are doubling their production by the end of this year.

via PC Mag

Volunteers like to see their volunteer hours and precious dollars go far in support of the causes they care about. American Express and Take Part are launching a new campaign to make it easier to magnify each individual's good works.

The Members Project not only will enlist the public to vote on the best charities to receive $4 million American Express dollars annually, but it will donate up to $100 per person who volunteers his or her time.

Despite its name, the Members Project isn't restricted to American Express members. Anyone can suggest charities, vote for their favorites at the Take Part site and take advantage of the volunteer payments.

Neither American Express nor Take Part is new to this kind of cause marketing. American Express launched the an early cause marketing campaign in 1983 to raise the $1.7 million needed to preserve the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and has continually invested in this type of philanthropy over the years. In 2007 and 2008, it let its members determine how the company should spend its philanthropic dollars, and the company donated at total of $3.5 million to UNICEF and to the Alzheimer's Association.

Take Part is the newly launched digital arm of Participant Media, whose mission is to inspire action on a range of pressing issues. Participant Media just scored another win in its efforts with The Cove, winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Food, Inc., another Participant Media film, was also nominated, and you may have heard of a little film called An Inconvenient Truth, another Participant Media production.)

"One of the things we're quite frankly incredibly proud about American Express being a partner of ours is that they are one of the original brands that saw that a brand could do good in the world and should do good in the world," said Chris Gebhardt, general manager and executive vice president of Take Part. "They get credit for creating cause marketing and it stretches back to the Statue of Liberty restoration."

The Members Project works like this:

Vote
People vote (as often as weekly) for the charities that should receive American Express money. Every three months, American Express will give $200,000 to each of five organizations, every three months. (That's $1 million each round, or $4 million ever year.) In the first round, 49 charities selected by an American Express advisory committee are eligible, but additional charities will be added at the suggestion of the audience.

Donate
The site makes it easy to find charitable organizations that need support. It also provides a platform for communicating one's charitable giving to friends, so that they might inspire them to do the same.

Volunteer
People who register their volunteer hours can earn $5 per hour, up to $100 per year. American Express cardholders can redeem those dollars for rewards, and others can apply money earned toward the charity of their choice. (Any donations made this way would be in addition to the $4 million in direct giving that American Express has promised.)

"The innovative hook here is we've added volunteering and donating into the mix as well, so it's really trying to inspire small steps someone can take," Gebhardt said. "It's not just about donating. It's about volunteering too. The small step can make a big difference."

For American Express, the $4 million commitment, plus the promise of rewarding volunteer hours, is on top of roughly $30 million in annual giving, according to Nancy Smith, vice president of Global Media, Content and Community at American Express. She hopes to see the campaign become a viral success, catalyzing increased volunteerism and philanthropy.

"I think that what's really going to make a difference is for individuals to start telling their own stories," she said. "Now that the social media tools are available, it's bringing that to life."

Get started at Take Part.

More from The Daily Green

• Real People Making a Real Difference
• 11 Volunteer Vacations
• 3 Websites to Check Before Giving Money to Charity
• 15 Ways to Give Without Giving 'Stuff'
• 8 Charitable Oranizations That Want Your Old Junk

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc