Impact Everyday turns credit card points into sustainability projects

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 | Source: Concentrate

It's hard to find the silver lining in a major ecological disaster like last summer's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but one candidate to flash a little glint of silver is Impact Everyday.

The University of Michigan student-led start-up was created by a handful of young people frustrated with the response to that disaster. Their vision is to channel the energy from that anger into something more positive.

"There is a groundswell of people who want to create change, just like there was a groundswell of outrage from the BP oil spill," says Adam Carver, founder of Impact Everyday.

The 1-year-old start-up has created a funding mechanism that aggregates consumer credit card reward points to finance local renewable energy projects. The idea is to make a difference through everyday activity.

Carver and his team of eight, all U-M graduate and undergrad students, have already won $10,000 in seed capital from a third-place finish in this year's Michigan Clean Energy Prize competition. The team plans to make a deep dive into the project this summer and have 50,000 cardholders helping to finance 5-10 visible alternative energy projects within the next year.

"We're hoping to have the credit card available by this fall," Carver says. "We're accepting proposals for renewable energy projects now."

Source: Adam Carver, founder of Impact Everyday
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.