GreenYour.com

Weary of making the rounds at bars, nightclubs, and coffee shops in search of an eco-compatible mate? Try your love-seeking luck with a green online dating service where like-minded folk virtually mingle and chew the fat about topics of concern, whether it's organic wine production in Oregon or the intricacies of carbon offsetting.

How to use a green online dating service

• What exactly am I doing here? Before you register for an online dating service—green or not—consider your motivations. Are you looking for a long-term relationship, a platonic friendship, or someone to settle down with? If a potential suitor doesn't see eye to eye on some issues will that be a deal breaker? And the question of ages: must he or she love dogs? You can register with a service without a particular agenda but usually a site will ask for your preferences to make matchmaking easier. Once you've decided, gather and upload what you consider your most alluring photos (or visit LookBetterOnline.com) and fill out the profile. Have fun with it. There's no steadfast rule about what you should and shouldn't reveal about yourself. Some online daters find success in keeping an air of mystery while others prefer to put it all out there. You go can always go back and make changes to your profile, so if you make the switch from vegetarianism to veganism two weeks after joining, don't fret.

• Test the waters at online dating services geared to those who practice green living (see Find it! below) to up your chances of scoring with a sustainable stud or hybrid-driving honey. Most allow you to browse the goods by interest, whether it be vegetarianism, holistic living, activism, nature appreciation, biodynamic farming, or animal rights. If you'd rather fish from a larger pool, try a traditional, non-niche online dating service like Match.com, OkCupid, eHarmony, or Lavalife. You can specify your green preferences in your personalized profile and search for other members with similar interests and attitudes. Although a few non-greenies may catch your eye on your quest for romance on these general sites, variety is the spice of life, right?

• Social butterfly? Social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook are also fine places to rendezvous with potential green love interests, as are green online communities like Greeniacs, AboutMyPlanet, or the forums section of TreeHugger. In the real world, a love connection can be sparked in the most unlikely of places and the Internet is no different. Who knows, you may not have too look any further than GreenYour.

• Browsing doesn't hurt if you aren't ready to dive into an Internet-borne relationship. Scanning profiles to see what's out there is the first step in securing a cyberfling—you may decide to step no further. If you do connect and move beyond this point, don't rush yourself, appear desperate, or throw yourself into something that feels uncomfortable—there are plenty of good greenies out there to go around.

• Green your cyber-cruising by using an energy-saving laptop or ENERGY STAR computer. If you're waiting on pins and needles for a response from a potential match, don't let the screensaver run—put the computer to sleep or shut it down completely. Turning off your PC will prevent around 2,161 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere annually.[1] And for a change of scenery, take that laptop to a coffee shop serving up free WiFi and organic or fair trade joe.

• If your virtual conquests are unfruitful don't become crestfallen. According to a survey by Forbes.com the top places to meet other singles are at parties (12 percent), bars (12 percent), or at a friend's house (14 percent). Online rendezvouses only represented 6 percent of the survey.[2] Better yet, check out a green networking event like Green Drinks to meet an eco-compatible mate.

Find it! Green online dating services

Looking to hug a human and not a tree? Check out these green online dating services and maybe you'll snag the ecosexual of your dreams.

Using a green online dating service helps you go green because...

• It's a chance to connect romantically and intellectually with someone who has similar values and interests. Through a date's green influence, you'll learn about and become involved with eco-issues that you may have been unfamiliar with prior. Conversely, your own green habits may rub off on Mr. or Ms. Right (or Right Now).
• Browsing for love online is less carbon intensive than driving yourself to a bar, club, or singles' hangout, especially if you are traveling a long distance and repeatedly striking out. Going online lets you save those carbon emissions for meeting "the one" face-to-face.
• Since there aren't geographic barriers to Internet chemistry, there's the possibility of a long-distance relationship with someone in a community that has vastly different green ideals than your own. It's a chance to not only expand your green horizons but your cultural ones as well.

Gone are the days of newspaper classifieds, 1-800 numbers, matchmaking services, and awkward blind dates arranged by friends. Online dating sites—an industry expected to be worth $932 million by 2011 in the US—were frequented by around 20 million "desperately seeking" US visitors in December 2006.[3] In fact, at any given time, one in five of the 100 million unattached Americans heads online looking for love.[4] At the end of November 2004 there were 844 dating and lifestyle websites.[5]

Think of online dating in the same terms as online shopping: Internet surfing uses 20 times less energy than a minute spent driving to the mall (or in this case, the singles bar, coffee shop, or wherever your local singles haunt may be).[6] Fewer cars on the roads means less congestion, which ultimately leads to reduced transportation-related energy emissions.

According to a study by Dutch academic Jan Kooijman, singles who live alone have a higher carbon footprint than those who cohabitate or are married. This is the result of the need for more living spaces and household goods—everything from kitchen appliances to mattresses to toothpaste—that are required for each solo-dweller. Homes and apartments use energy, and household goods create greenhouse gases during production.[7] Divorce is also not an environmentally sound action as it also increases water and energy consumption, as well as the need for additional living spaces and goods when households are divided.[8]

External links

• MSN Dating & Personals - 10 dating statistics you ought to know
• The Huffington Post - How To Find Love In A Greener World
• The Dating Blog
• NOW Magazine - Hunting Down Environmental Hotties
• Online Dating Magazine "Authoritative Insight Into the World of Online Dating"