Green Dimes provides a service that reduces junk mail and plants trees in the name of the subscriber. This is making a difference for individuals and the environment, but they are taking the idea one step further.

This is from an email sent to current subscribers:

“At a team meeting in July, we were thinking through what a ride the first few months has been. To-date, we’ve signed up tens of thousands of households and stopped nearly 1.3 million pounds of junk mail. Your memberships have also helped plant over 270,000 trees and saved more than 3 million gallons of water. We have put together a world-class Board of Directors and recently raised $20.5 million dollars from one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. What if we now had the voice, the public support, and the lobbying power to actually put an end to unwanted postal mail for good?

It’s hard to stand for something only if we stand to make money off of the problem- so if we don’t like junk mail, which we don’t, we’re going to fight to end it.

Our team of 12 has spent the past ten months working around the clock to make sure we reduce as much junk mail for our members as humanly possible. Press from every corner of America has covered our journey. People are taking note.

Yes, things are going well here at GreenDimes. But we’ve decided to push ourselves even harder and really flip our dimes.

That’s why we’re starting a national Do-Not-Mail Petition. We want every one of you to sign it and send the URL to your friends. There’s no cost to you and we will lobby state and federal government to limit unsolicited postal mail immediately. In 2007, 14 states are working on Do Not Mail legislation, and we are going to work hard to support them and get the other 36 on board.

And there’s more good news. GreenDimes is now a $15 one time charge instead of $36 every year. None of you, our existing members, will be charged again. We also have a $5 refer-a-friend bonus and a store with new products. All of the tools we have built are still yours, but for free, forever.

We’re going to monitor mail preference lists every single month to make sure your name and address are not on them. And as always, if you have questions or if you feel like you’re continuing to get junk mail, contact customer service and we’ll be happy to help you. Nothing has changed from a service perspective, it’s just cheaper and easier than ever before.

So there it is- a new site with new ways for you to stand with us against junk mail. We are happy to have your support. Please note that you will be unable to log into your account over the next few days while the engineers are putting the final touches on the site. We appreciate your patience! “

http://www.greendimes.com/