BY MISTY MILIOTO
According to The Nature Conservancy, the average carbon footprint — or the amount of greenhouse gasses that an activity, product, company, or country adds to the atmosphere — for a person in the United States is 16 tons — one of the highest rates in the world.
To put that number into perspective, globally, the average carbon footprint per person is closer to four tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2oC rise in global temperatures, the nonprofit organization reports that the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop to less than two tons by 2050.
In addition to taking small actions, like eating less meat or line-drying laundry, another good way to reduce your carbon footprint is to purchase carbon offsets. Enter Houston-based Terrapass, a company formed in 2004 by Dr. Karl Ulrich, a professor at The Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a group of his students.
“Terrapass was formed in the class, Problem Solving, Design and System Improvement, a second-quarter class in Wharton’s MBA program,” says Sam Telleen, president of Terrapass. “By the end of the class, Terrapass had acquired a couple hundred customers, and 41 students elected to retain equity and continue working on the business.”
At that time, the company allowed individuals to offset their carbon emissions from driving. “The original Terrapass website would prompt users to enter the make, model, year, and annual mileage of their car in order to calculate their annual carbon emissions from driving,” Telleen says. “Then customers [had] an option to offset those emissions by purchasing carbon credits.”
Within its first year, Terrapass registered more than 2,400 members and reduced 36 million pounds of carbon dioxide. Then, in 2007, Terrapass expanded its offerings to provide carbon offsets for individuals in other important areas such as air travel and home-energy consumption. The company also expanded into the business sector by offering a rental car offset program with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Today, the environmental company offers carbon offsets through the Terrapass Global Portfolio of projects. The portfolio is based on the Oxford Principals for Net Zero Aligned Offsetting, including engineered projects with strong permanence and quantification paired with nature-based projects that create additional benefits like: protecting valuable species and ecosystems; carbon reductions that prevent new carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society; and carbon removals that remove carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere.
The well-established and proven project types are highly regarded by sustainability reporting agencies globally. Key project types include landfill gas destruction, industrial emission reduction, afforestation/reforestation/revegetation, improved forest management, and reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation. Examples include Capricorn Ridge 4 Wind Farm, the Doe Mountain Forestry Project, and the Maple Hill Landfill Project, among many others.
Terrapass also develops custom project portfolios for commercial clients. “Our sustainability advisors help businesses find projects that are meaningful for their industry, operations, customers, and employees,” Telleen says.
In addition to the company’s global portfolio for standard online purchases, Terrapass typically offers a few specific projects that online customers can choose to support. However, the company is currently expanding its strategic relationships with several projects, so this option is temporarily paused. Starting Jan. 1, Terrapass customers will see several exciting new projects from which to choose.
“Many of these will be available to both individuals and businesses,” Telleen says. “These include small- landowner forestry projects that help families protect and preserve their forest lands by preventing the need for logging to generate income. They also include projects that plug old abandoned oil wells that leak methane into the air and create pollution risks for local air and groundwater.”
Every project that Terrapass chooses to support must meet certain criteria. For example, the company only offers carbon offsets that are sourced from projects that are reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the present day.
“Carbon reduction projects fund their construction and ongoing operation by generating and selling carbon credits for 20-plus years,” Telleen explains. “While these older credits were created from valid carbon reductions, they can divert funding away from active carbon reduction projects that are issuing new credits into the market. Sourcing carbon credits from projects that are actively reducing carbon dioxide emissions ensures that Terrapass and our customers are supporting projects that continue to operate and reduce global carbon emissions every day.”
Additionally, Terrapass’s carbon offsets are certified by set industry standards and verified by an independent, accredited third party.
“In order to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, carbon offsets must achieve significant scale and a consistent level of high-integrity climate impact,” Telleen says. “This cannot be accomplished with organizations and projects all over the world acting independently and inconsistently. It requires strong and consistent global governance to ensure market fairness, efficiency, transparency, and fraud prevention.”
Terrapass projects operate under registries approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), the leading global standard for effective governance, tracking, transparency, and robust independent third-party verification.
“Currently, 100% of our carbon credits are verified by Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, the Climate Action Reserve, and the American Carbon Registry,” Telleen says.
ICVCM-approved registries adhere to several standards: effective governance (to ensure transparency, accountability, continuous improvement and the overall quality of carbon credits); tracking (to uniquely identify, record, and track project activities and carbon credits issued); transparency (providing comprehensive, transparent, and publicly available information on all project activities); and independent third-party validation.
Terrapass projects also adhere to industry-leading standards to ensure that carbon credit purchases drive clear and impactful climate benefits. “This includes our commitment to continually grow our offering of ICVCM-approved project methodologies that are assessed for compliance with ICVCM Core Carbon Principles,” Telleen says.
These project standards include what’s called additional (the carbon reduction would not happen without sustained carbon credit funding); permanence (the carbon reduction cannot be reversed, or it is protected for at least 40 years); no double counting (the carbon reduction funded by a customer’s purchase is theirs and theirs alone); rigorous and accurate quantification (carbon reductions represent genuine atmospheric impact that is determined in a transparent and replicable manner using robust, credible methodologies and baselines); and sustainable development benefits and safeguards (project activities follow industry best practices on social and environmental safeguards, while delivering positive sustainable development impacts).
Terrapass also performs its own project-specific due diligence in addition to the project methodology and registry standards enforced by ICVCM.
“We evaluate features that are unique to each project, including ownership, history, additionality, permanence, current operating status, site inspections, independent third-party assessments, and public information,” Telleen says.
In order for customers to decide how many carbon offset credits to purchase, Terrapass offers an emissions calculator on its website. The company also has a blog on its website that has an extensive library of topics to help customers with a wide variety of sustainability needs.
While it’s always a good idea to purchase carbon offset credits, December is an important time of year for sustainability. “It is a time to reflect on what we accomplished and what we can still accomplish before the year is over,” Telleen says. For those on your holiday gift list who appreciate environmentally conscious ideas, you can give the gift of Terrapass through a downloadable Terrapass gift certificate, available on the Terrapass website.
“The gift of Terrapass is special because it allows us to give to the planet on behalf of our family, friends, [and] clients. It is an opportunity to help someone end the year with hope and good feelings for our planet.”
For more information, visit www.terrapass.com.
