Vancouver, BC, Canada. - 22 June 2009 - Empowering individuals, businesses, and organizations to make informed environmental choices is the key idea behind a globally-developed bid for the .eco (Dot Eco) Internet extension launched today by Big Room Inc..

Big Room Inc., a Canadian company based in Vancouver, has developed its platform and bid for the Dot Eco generic top-level domain (gTLD) along with an international team of partners, advisors, and investors with well-established roots in the sustainability and business communities. Afilias, one of the world’s most-respected registry services providers, is partnering with Big Room to operate the technical aspects of Dot Eco.

"Big Room’s Dot Eco is the right bid by the right team at the right time," said Big Room co-founder Trevor Bowden. "Individuals and organizations want to cut through all the eco claims out there so they can make better choices. Our Dot Eco will help them do that.

The Dot Eco system will collect and store eco-information in addition to the technical and administrative information collected when someone registers a domain name.

"By using the Internet as a global online database, Big Room’s Dot Eco will allow individuals to make informed eco-choices and it will give businesses and organizations, both big and small, an effective and inexpensive tool to share their eco performance," Bowden added.

In keeping with the bottom-up spirit that has driven the Internet and the global sustainability community, Big Room will further refine its application through a series of worldwide public consultations to develop and refine the policies that will govern Dot Eco.

".eco is a unique global resource which must be stewarded effectively and responsibly to promote sustainability around the world," said Martin Atkin, Director of External & Media Relations for WWF International. "Big Room’s vision for .eco will create a new, credible and trustworthy internet extension that will make a real difference for individuals and for the environment."

Big Room will submit its bid for Dot Eco when the application round for new gTLDs overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opens in the first quarter of 2010.

More information on the Big Room Dot Eco application is available at www.doteco.info

About Big Room: Big Room Inc. is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia with an office in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 2007 with the goal of empowering the global community to make informed environmental and sustainability choices. Big Room’s three co-founders are committed environmentalists with a long history of working with organisations, governments and companies to bring about positive environmental and social change.

Backgrounder

Big Room Dot ECO application

Big Room Team:

• The founders of Big Room, Anastasia O’Rourke, Jacob Malthouse and Trevor Bowden, have deep sustainability expertise, having worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), INSEAD Business School, Yale University, Institute for Sustainable Futures, the EcoDesign Foundation, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

• Afilias Global Registry Services is the world’s leading provider of Internet infrastructure solutions that connect people to their data.
  
• AMEE's goal is to map, measure and track all the energy data on Earth.
  
• Laga/Deloitte assists companies in establishing, monitoring and enforcing their IP and IT platforms.
  
• Meridian Institute helps decision makers and diverse stakeholders solve some of society’s most contentious public policy issues.

• Nick Fitzpatrick, Retired, Former Head of Global Investment Consulting, Hewitt
  
• Jonathon Hanks, Founding Partner, Incite Sustainability
  
• Cheryl Hicks, Manager, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
  
• Gareth Hughes, Partner, Beetle Capital Partners
  
• Jeff Keeler, Head of M&A, Iberdrola Renewables
  
• Dr. Ashok Khosla, President, International Union for Conservation of Nature
  
• Bill Knight, President, Hebb, Knight and Associates
  
• David Levi, CEO, GrowthWorks Capital
  
• David Runnalls, President, International Institute for Sustainable Development
  
• Tom Rotherham, Head of Corporate Responsibility, Radley Yeldar
  
• Vanda Scartezini, CEO, ALTIS Software & Services
  
• Peter Sibley, Founder, World Television plc
  
• Chris Walker, Climate and Energy Consultant
  
• Professor Stuart White, Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures
  
• Michael Young, Vice President, Product Development - Afilias Limited

• 332 - 237 Keefer St, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6A 1X6
  
• bigroom.ca
  
• hello@bigroom.ca

Big Room Inc.

Big Room Inc.

Big Room Inc. is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia with an office in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 2007 with the goal of making it easier for people to make green choices. Following on from the successful launch in 2008 of ecolabelling.org -- a platform to help companies and consumers understand ecolabels -- Big Room has launched its second major project: .eco (Dot Eco). Big Room is building a system that will use the Dot Eco domain to display current, detailed eco-information to anyone with a browser, anytime they need it, anywhere on the planet. For more information see www.doteco.info

More from Big Room Inc.