Dr. Karl Ulrich is a University of Pennsylvania environmentalist who is concerned about the global impact of driving. So much so that every day he commutes eight miles to his university job by bicycle in the snow, rain or oppressive heat.
But Karl started thinking about his driving and the effects it might be having on environment when he decided to build a log cabin in Vermont. Because he was commuting between Vermont and Pennsylvania on weekends to build his second home, he was putting quite a hefty amount of mileage on his Ford truck.
He began wondering if he could somehow balance out the climate impact created by his driving and came up with the idea of TerraPass.
A company created in 2004 to help everyday people reduce the climate impact of driving, TerraPass is about reducing carbon dioxide emissions responsible for global warming and the greenhouse effect. But Ulrich didn't come up with the company idea or strategy on his own. His students did.
Ulrich challenged his 41 students to create an affordable carbon offset program for everyday drivers and they came up with the concept of TerraPass for everyday drivers. In its first year, the company registered over 2,400 members and reduced 36 million pounds of C02.
The company concept is based on the premise that we all contribute to global warming. We all have a "carbon footprint" - the total carbon dioxide emissions we create when we drive or fly or use electricity.
Individually, consumers can take a first step towards fighting global warming by reducing the carbon footprint through conservation. By driving less, turning down the thermostat or buying locally produced goods.
Via TerraPass, a carbon footprint can literally be reduced all the way to zero in a quid pro quo sort of way. The way it works is the consumer calculates personal carbon emission via calculating tools on the company website that translate how much CO2 a flight or drive from starting point to destination will emit.
The personal calculation is then transformed into the actual monetary figure it would cost to clean up the individual consumer's emission total.
The consumer then purchases a TerraPass and for each dollar's worth of CO2 emitted, the company applies that amount towards efforts at cleaning up emissions elsewhere. In other words, the pass is a counterbalance buying funding of clean energy projects such as wind farms and greenhouse reduction aimed at cleaning up the environment.
"I'm an antique car restorer who needs a large vehicle that can tow a trailer," says Tom G. of Texas. "I'm concerned about the impact I have and I'm glad I can do something about it."
Of course, global warming is too big a problem for a handful of people to solve on their own. It's a global problem that requires action on a global scale.
Every TerraPass member has taken a simple positive step to fight global warming and so far, over 150 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions have been omitted through the program via funding of nine clean energy projects. Equally important, TerraPass is changing the way people think about climate change.
In the United States, for example, air travel generates as much as 10% of transportation-based emissions or CO2 primarily, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting. A typical 5-hour flight from Los Angeles to New York generates one ton of carbon dioxide per passenger.
Offsetting that amount of C02, however, costs $17 in TerraPass dollars and cents; international flights originating from the U.S. cost $30.
Expedia.com and Travelocity.com, online travel sites, partner with TerraPass by collecting the offset costs from consumers and passing them directly on to carbon emission reduction projects via TerraPass.
"There is a large contingent of consumers … concerned with green travel," said Expedia spokeswoman Katie Deines. "It's important to us to offer our customers options in that vein."
Similar models have been around in Europe since the 90's but the U.S. has been "a bit slow," according to Deines, in adopting carbon offsetting.
"Expedia and Travelocity are doing nothing more than cashing in on travelers' sensitivity to global warming," said Henry Harteveldt, principal analyst for travel research at Forrester Research. "Nothing wrong with that, and it's fine they give travelers the option to participate."
TerraPass has set lofty future goals: to reach a million members and offset ten billion pounds of CO2 emissions within the coming years while serving as inspiration to businesses and governments.
"It's a simple, efficient way for citizens to get directly involved in combating global warming," an article in Business.com cited. Nothing wrong with that!