TerraPass - Consumer Driven Change

A few years back my friend Tom Arnold founded a company called . The company has been getting a ton of press and momentum, and for good reason. I love what they do and the concept is simple. You want to be carbon neutral, so you decide to offset the CO2 you put into the air by driving, flying, or heating your home. You go to TerraPass.com, input your driving/flying/home energy habits, and buy a corresponding TerraPass. They then put your money into clean energy projects, such as wind energy, that replace enough "dirty" energy to offset what you've pumped into the air, functioning like your own personal carbon offset. Great idea.

I just offset two business flights, a weekend flight for me and my girlfriend, and my flight home for Christmas, all for just $37. Then I offset my car for a year for $30 (I know, no electric car yet, can you believe it?). Conscience clear, but even more important, CO2 clear.

They've also announced great partnerships to effect change at the point of purchase, such as the ones with Enterprise, Alamo, and National. When you rent a car through these companies you'll be given the chance to offset the CO2 from your rental. Or with Expedia, which allows customers the same option when they book a trip.

I'd love to see even more of this, such as a GreenGrocer TerraPass at grocery store checkout lanes, giving you the ability to offset CO2 involved with the manufacturing and transport of your groceries. I'm sure Whole Foods customers would jump all over that, and it'd be a great marketing move for Whole Foods. Alternatively, other grocery chains could move first to capture more of that lucrative customer segment.

And my personal favorite would be if they could put an option right at the gas pump. Pay an extra 5 or 10 cents per gallon, and your entire fill-up is carbon neutral. I'd do that. But I wonder if Exxon and co. would go for that... "hey, pay a little extra to help put us out of business!" Hmmm, somehow I think it's a tough sell to the execs. But BP just might go for it, since they're trying to position themselves as the environmentally friendly oil company.