January 25th, 2008

By Shermakaye Bass

This month, TerraPass, one of the first American companies to put carbon offsetting on the map, introduced a new service called the Carbon Balance Business Program.

Like its plan for individuals, which TerraPass introduced in late 2004, the business program offers an online “carbon calculator” to help entrepreneurs, office managers and corporate CFO’s determine the environmental impact of their business’s annual carbon footprint, in metric tons of CO2 per year. Once that figure is determined, the company can purchase “carbon credits” to offset those emissions. At $10.91 per metric ton, the TerraPass program recycles money into clean energy production, such as wind farms and landfill gas-capture programs.

“Previously, businesses needed to rely on consultants to figure out their carbon footprints,” says TerraPass communications director Michael Kadish says. “But now they can use TerraPass’s business carbon calculator. … For example, when looking at on-site energy usage, if utility bill information is not accessible, TerraPass can make estimates based on average cost or even square footage of office space. Employee commute and business travel data is based on averages in selected travel modes for each employee.”

For example: You’re based in Arlington, VA, with a 15,000 sq-foot office space that has one on-site server whose data is stored locally; you also own three company cars that clock a total of 50,000 miles annually, plus a delivery van that averages 20,000 miles annually; you have five employees who take a half-dozen 3-hour-plus flights each year and a dozen under-3-hour flights annually; in addition, each of those five employees makes 40 train trips per year; and for overall business travel, they stay in hotels
13 nights per year.

Based on those figures — randomly supplied by GreenRightNow — your company’s annual carbon footprint is 317 metric tons of CO2. With one metric ton equaling about 2,204.6 lbs of carbon emissions, that means your company emits nearly 700,000 pounds of
CO2 per anum – or approximately 113 gallons of gasoline. So, to offset your business’s output, you’d need to purchase a total of $3,458.47 in carbon credits from TerraPass.

Spokesperson Kadish says that, as with individuals’ credits, these are verified by an objective third party. He also says the new business services resulted from customer demand. “TerraPass has (attracted) more than 80,000 individual members and helped reduce as much as 700 million pounds of carbon emissions” since launching in October of 2004.

The company hopes to make similar inroads into the business sector, he says.

Time will tell. For more information on the new Carbon Balance Business program or to do a test-run and determine your company’s annual footprint, try out the business calculator.

Or, to calculate your personal carbon imprint, use their homeowner carbon calculator.