Riding a bicycle is usually a great way to reduce fossil fuel emissions. But that's not necessarily true if you're a cyclist on a racing team, driving around the country to compete. That's why Clif Bar is trying to offset the fossil fuel use of its cycling team by buying wind farm credits – and offering the public a chance to buy them too.

Through Clif Bar's Start Global Cooling program, anyone can purchase a Cool Tag, which represents a two dollar investment in NativeEnergy's WindBuilders program. NativeEnergy helps Native Americans build renewable energy projects such as wind farms. Every tag helps cleanly generate roughly the energy required to travel 300 miles by car – and also, according to Clif Bar, represents a savings of 300 pounds of CO2 emissions over standard energy sources. Buy them online or at any Clif Bar sponsored event.

In 2006, the cycling team will keep track of every mile they travel in fossil-fuel powered vehicles – via road and air – for races and other team-related business. They’ll then purchase Cool Tags to offset their emissions.

Offsetting CO2 emissions is an increasingly popular way of trying to stem the tide of global warming without radically changing lifestyles. For more information on carbon offsets, visit Carbonfund.org.

Image credit: Clif Bar