To Profit, Or Not To Profit, Join The Offsetting Debate
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 04.11.08
TerraPass, an American for-profit carbon offset provider, is no stranger to media attention. Last year we interviewed TerraPass co-founder Adam Stein here, and
its other co-founder Tom Arnold here.
Today, at Carbon Catalog, TerraPass takes on the challenge of defending its position as a for-profit carbon offset provider. Arnold talks a bit about the upcoming elections in America, the company’s money-back guarantee, and Ed Begley, Jr.
A fan of reading blogs for news and offsetting information, Arnold says his company is motivated both by profit and the mission of saving the environment: “TerraPass challenges the traditional assumption that you either work on a business that destroys the environment or work at a non profit to protect it,” says Arnold.
Armed with educational resources and a web presence like no other, TerraPass has a bold goal to build a world where as many people offset as recycle.
And does this world include both for-profit and not-for-profit carbon offset providers? “Yep, there’s room for both,” says Arnold, “Just like car sharing or childcare, a blend of for-profit and non-profit business models have flourished.”
Read the entire interview here.
Carbon Catalog (see TH interview with Gideon Greenspan here) is growing into a meaningful resource for people who are looking to purchase offsets online.
How much of your money goes to the actual projects? What’s the quality of the offset you are buying, compared to the price? The Carbon Catalog guide, with its handy ratings system, can help you sort through the mess.
Noteworthy, is that providers are constantly in touch with Carbon Catalog, making sure the information provided is up to date, and as much as possible, in their favor.
Profits per se are not bad. The problem is when wealth gets concentrated into a relatively small sector of the population. These people end up controlling everyone and everything. It becomes more difficult for the average person to strike out on his/her own. Politics becomes more corrupt. Free speech takes it on the chin. What we really need it to get more people to be successful at running their own business. To do this we may need to bite the bullet and accept less efficiency in the markets and cuts in economic productivity. However, the things we really value like free speech and self determination and creativity will increase greatly. Education would go up, crime would go down.
The way to do accomplish this involves increasing the upper income marginal tax rates to above 75 percent in addition to increasing minimum wage to provide a living wage. Some may complain that this would reduce employment. That is possible, however, it would be temporary. Because the average worker would have more income that worker would spend more money. Since the wealthy couldn't get as much of that money due to the higher tax rates on the wealthy, more money would trickle down to new business owners - the true mom and pops. These guys would be working harder than ever and loving it because they have something of their own to be proud of. Neighborhoods would thrive again and we may regain some civic pride that has long been on the decline.
By introducing financial models to the offsetting industry, we begin to speak a language that industry understands. As for the profit/non-profit debate, that will be settled by market pressures. Non-profits will help to regulate against monopolistic pricing controls and maintain fair market pricing. If there is to be a global market for carbon then there has to be a naturally regulated economy based around it. Hats off to Adam and Tom and any of the early adopters; I hope they make a mint (thus encouraging more entrepreneurs)...
There are more reasons than making a mint to starting ones own business. Independence, flexibility, pride and creative freedom are usually stronger drivers than greed. Also, concentration of wealth undermines the confidence of those wanting to start out on there own. This is true because as wealth gets more concentrated success is less likely for those starting out on their own. We need to redistribute the wealth in this country to give more people a chance.