TerraPass members reach 1 billion pounds offset

by Tom Arnold – July 15, 2008

I’m happy to announce that TerraPass members have balanced out a total of 1 billion pounds of CO2 emissions!

As of June 30, we’re now recording total purchases of just over the 1,000,000,000-pound mark. This includes purchases made directly on the TerraPass web site, as well as purchases made through partnerships with Expedia, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Sam’s Club, and our newest partner, Climate Change Chocolate (yum!).

Since Roman times, milestones have been used to assure travelers they were on the right route and provide a gauge of progress. While mindful of the length and challenge of our journey, we’re happy to see this signpost along the way.

We’re on a path that matters. TerraPass is unique among offset providers in that our business is overwhelmingly from individuals, rather than business clients. Some climate change pundits claim that “the consumer” doesn’t matter. We disagree. Well over 100,000 TerraPass members have bought carbon offsets, supporting 25 great carbon-reduction projects here in the U.S. and engaging everyday folks in a conversation about how to lower their impact. And we know that the type of individual purchasing a TerraPass carbon offset reduces emissions in other ways. In addition, the TerraPass community’s reaction to our selection of energy-saving products is amazing. Over 1,200 of you have the Smart Strip, and we can barely keep the Scan Gauge in stock.

We’re making good progress. A billion pounds is a small bite out of the total U.S. output of over seven gigatons of carbon per year. But it is something. Some comparisons:

It is roughly the amount of carbon from 1 billion miles of driving, or 40,000 trips around the earth.
To save an equivalent amount of carbon, you’d have to swap almost 10 million regular light bulbs for CFLs.
Alternatively, you could install 4 million low-flow showerheads.
Or you could air dry 177 million loads of laundry.

Which is all to say, in a roundabout way, that we think a billion pounds is progress, and cool progress at that. The next stop is 10 billion, and the pounds are piling up more quickly than ever. Care to join us for the journey?

Image by Flickr user Jule_Berlin.