The TerraPass Story

TerraPass is the brainchild of Dr. Karl Ulrich at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with 41 of his students, Karl launched TerraPass in October, 2004 as a way to help everyday people reduce the climate impact of their driving. Within its first year, TerraPass registered over 2,400 members, reduced 36 million pounds of CO2, and earned countless national press and blog articles.

How did it start?

Karl is an environmentalist. He commutes by bicycle. Eight miles a day, every day, in the snow, rain, or sweltering heat. His record is unmatched at the University of Pennsylvania.

But like a lot of people, he is concerned about the impact of his driving. You see, Karl loves Vermont. So much that he's building a cabin there. Building a cabin requires tools, and tools require a truck. A Ford F-150, to be precise, which he drives between Philadelphia and Vermont quite a few weekends every year.

Karl thought, ”What if I could balance out the climate impact my driving created?“ That’s when he came up with the idea of TerraPass.

Quite a bit of research later, Karl was buying thousands of dollars of renewable energy contracts, and feeling frustrated by the high minimum purchase required to get into the market.

That fall, Karl walked into a classroom at Wharton, gave his students a check for $5,000, and challenged them to create an affordable carbon offset for everyday drivers. TerraPass is the result.

Where we are now

TerraPass has grown steadily over the past few years. We have a small staff in a nice office near the Bay Bridge in downtown San Francisco. More importantly, we've sold over 85,000 TerraPasses, resulting in the reduction of over 600 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

Where we are going

Our goals are lofty – we want to reach one million members and offset ten billion pounds of CO2 emissions. We want to serve as inspiration to businesses and governments. Care to come along for the ride?