Exclusive: Big Room joins race for .eco control

Vancouver-based startup Big Room will tomorrow formally announce its bid for control of the planned .eco domain name at a meeting in Sydney of internet oversight body ICANN.

The company will now take on rival operation Dot Eco LLC, which announced its own bid earlier this year, in the race to secure the proposed .eco domain. ICANN is expected to launch the formal bidding process early next year with a view to awarding rights over the domain by the end of 2010.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Trevor Bowden, who co-founded Big Room in 2007, along with two former colleagues from the UN Environment Programme, said that the company planned to establish the domain as a form of environmental certification that allows firms to highlight their green credentials.

"The aim would be for companies to register for the .eco domain in the same way they do for any other domain, but they would also have to disclose some additional information on their eco-credentials in order to secure the domain," he said.

Bowden said the company was currently consulting with sustainability experts on what type of information will have to be disclosed, but he insisted some degree of reporting would be mandatory. "We are looking at where we set the bar, but we realise it is critical that .eco means something," he said.

He added that Big Room would also introduce a mechanism for auditing the green claims of those firms that use the .eco domain, either by requiring registrants to secure third-party assurance, carrying out spot-checks on organisations using .eco, or providing end users with a means of reporting companies that they suspect of overstating their environmental credentials.

The company is now expected to engage in a lengthy battle to manage the new domain with Dot Eco LLC.

Both organisations have secured high-profile endorsements, with Dot Eco announcing earlier this year that it has the support of environmental campaigner Al Gore and Big Room announcing that it has the backing of NGOs such as WWF and the David Suzuki Foundation.

Moreover, both have pledged to donate money from the sale of the .eco domains to environmental projects and charities, with Dot Eco pledging that a majority of its profits will go to green initiatives and Big Room committing an as yet undisclosed percentage of its revenues to environmental causes.