PRESS RELEASE Ottawa's Rideau…

                                    PRESS RELEASE
Ottawa's Rideau Canal Festival Fights Climate Change with Carbon-Neutral Calculator and
                                     Adopt-A-Meter Campaign

  Zerofootprint is contracted by the Rideau Canal Festival to help make festival history in
                                          Canada.

Toronto, ONTARIO ­ April 18, 2008 ­ The soon-to-be inaugurated Rideau Canal
Festival in Ottawa is set to become the first festival to be made carbon neutral through
Zerofootprint, an environmental not-for-profit organization. The festival will also be
Ottawa's first festival to honour Canada's newest UNESCO Heritage Site Designation.
To ensure the preservation of the canal for future generations, festival organizers have
made "going green" a priority by partnering with Zerofootprint.
"We are excited to be helping the Rideau Canal Festival reduce its environmental
impact," commented Deborah Kaplan, the Executive Director of Zerofootprint. "As a
World Heritage Site, it is important that we help preserve the Rideau Canal and ensure
that those attending this event are aware of how they can act to help preserve the area for
future generations."
Zerofootprint will be designing a new Festival Calculator specifically for this event to
help minimize the environmental harm resulting from the festival. In conjunction with the
Recycling Council of Ontario's reduce, re-use, and recycle practices, the strategy aims to
track the amount of carbon that is used as part of festival activities.
To ensure the sustainability of the festival, organizers are encouraging people to
participate in the Adopt-A-Meter campaign. For the price of twenty dollars, participants
will be able to adopt a meter of the Rideau Canal and contribute to the event's
sustainability initiatives such as the carbon fund. The carbon fund will be used to
purchase ISO-certified offsets that will balance out the carbon dioxide emissions
associated with the festival.
Zerofootprint specializes in creating and customizing carbon, ecological and water
footprint calculators. Individuals and organizations can use Zerofootprint's carbon
management tools to measure and track their environmental impact, link with others,
engage in sustainable initiatives, and form groups around green goals.
About Zerofootprint:
Recently nominated for a "Crunchie Award" as most likely to change the world and
named "Toronto's Best Green Organization" by blogTO, Zerofootprint's goal is to
mobilize and empower large groups of individuals and organizations worldwide to reduce
their collective carbon and ecological footprint. We do this by harnessing the power of
social networking, the Internet and software. Zerofootprint targets large organizations
such as collections of cities, multinational corporations, universities, schools and
multinational communities, which may span many countries. We enable them with
infrastructure that can measure, aggregate, track and manage their individual and
combined footprint. With clients ranging from Air Canada to City of Toronto, City of
Boulder, City of Seattle and University of Guelph, Zerofootprint is on a mission to
empower you to create a sustainable world. www.zerofootprint.net
About Rideau Canal Festival: The first Ottawa festival to honour the Rideau Canal's
UNESCO World Heritage Site Designation. The festival will take place from August 1st
to 4th. This free festival will have myriad activities for everyone: Colonel By Heritage
Fair, the first Rideau Canal Night Flotilla, World Heritage Flotilla starting from Fort
Henry in Kingston, the world's largest parade of bicylces (aiming for a Guinness World
Record), Ecosphere, and more.
For more information about the festival visit www.rideaucanalfestival.ca.

For inquiries, contact:
Deborah Kaplan                                Michel Gauthier
Executive Director, Zerofootprint             President and CEO, Rideau Canal Festival
(416) 365-7557                                (613) 301-455

Samantha Newton
Manager of Communications
Zerofootprint
862 Richmond St. W., Suite 302
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 1C9
(416) 365-7557
www.zerofootprint.net