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 [0] credits – and offering the public a chance to buy them too.

Through Clif Bar's Start Global Cooling [1] program, anyone can purchase a Cool Tag, which represents a two dollar investment in NativeEnergy's WindBuilders program. NativeEnergy [2] 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 [3] or at any Clif Bar sponsored event [4].

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 [4] without radically changing lifestyles. For more information on carbon offsets, visit Carbonfund.org [5].

Image credit: Clif Bar [6]