TerraPass and Expedia Partner to Sell Flight Offsets
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 08.30.06
Well, Gristmill beat us to the scoop on this one, but it's good enough news to spread around: CO2 offsets seller TerraPass has announced a partnership with Expedia, one of the web's top travel sites, to offer Flight Terrapasses to Expedia customers when they book their flights. As David Roberts at Gristmill notes, this is a big step forward in making the purchase of travel offsets much easier for consumers that want to lighten their carbon footprint. According to Terrapass's blog:
The co-marketed Flight TerraPass comes at three purchase levels: 1,000 lbs of CO2 for $5.99; 2,500 lbs of CO2 for $16.99; and 5,000 lbs of CO2 for $29.99, enough to balance about 2,200 miles; 6,500 miles; and 13,000 miles of flying, respectively. ...While this isn't the first attempt at co-branding offsets with another product or service, recent news about the climate impact of air travel ought to make this Expedia option quite popular with environmentally-conscious travelers. As the competition in the offsets market is getting fierce, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see other major travel sites follow suit. ::Terrablog via Gristmill via HuggTo buy a Flight TerraPass through Expedia, you just book a ticket as you normally would, and look for us on the “Customize your trip” page under the heading of “Featured Activities & Services.” You can also buy a TerraPass through Expedia separately from your plane ticket by clicking on the “Activities” tab and selecting dates and a destination.
Help me out here, folks. Buying these polluter passes fund green energy sources, correct? Then this energy is sold back to consumers (for profit)? Do I receive energy in return for my investment, or just a superficial sense of eco-responsibility? Wouldn't it make more sense to actually buy a wind generator or a solar panel and plug it into the grid, so that I can actually pollute less, rather than polluting and then clearing my conscious with guilt money? I feel like I'm missing something here...
Buying a carbon offset from TerraPass is buying a verified reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It might be through funding clean energy, it might be through methane capture, or it might be through industrial efficiency projects.
Calling carbon offsets "polluter passes" is a nicely pejorative way to frame the issue, but of course very few of us have a carbon footprint of zero. We are all polluters.
I agree that we should strive to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible through whatever means available -- solar panels and wind turbines are great, although somewhat out of reach for most Americans -- but for the emissions we can't eliminate, offsets are a great alternative.
I'm all for this, but it sounds like you have to jump through several pages before you get to the option. Couldn't there be a line item/button right there when you pay for your flight, on the same page?
And wouldn't it be a good idea if this was a mandatory part of the taxes and fees for every flight?
At Liverpool's John Lennon Airport in the UK, there's a donation box (like those you deposit knives and non-plane items in) where you can pay for carbon offsets for your flight.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your thoughts. The good news is that the program has been quite successful even under the current design. Expedia is looking for ways to expand the program, but there's a lot to be said for just jumping in and getting something out there. We couldn't be more pleased with the way the program has been handled at Expedia.
Mandatory offsets for flights are an interesting idea, although clearly far out of scope for this partnership.
I can't say I'm a big fan of the donation box idea. Treating offsets as a charity case for loose change is exactly not the kind of thinking about global warming that we want to encourage.