Concerned about her impact on the environment, Nora Miller regularly recycles papers and plastics. The fiftysomething resident of Tucson saves energy by keeping the lights and air-conditioning off when she can, and by setting her thermostat at 26 degrees or higher — even on some of Arizona's hottest days. But when it comes to travel, Miller says, she isn't always as conscientious.
“I feel a little bit stuck when I'm travelling,” she says, pointing out that on business trips she often takes planes, which, because of their high operating altitudes, account for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions. “I think about it, but I don't always do a good job of doing something about it.”
She did find an opportunity to do something, however, when she booked a plane trip to Portland, Ore., on Travelocity.com. Among the add-ons the site pushed during the booking process was a new program that offers to neutralize the environmental impact of customer trips by planting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. Miller paid $25 to have enough trees planted, by the calculations of the non-profit Conservation Fund, the group running the program, to offset the carbon emissions that could be attributed to her trip. (Travelocity.ca, the Canadian branch of the on-line agency, offers the carbon-offset option to travellers booking travel packages from Canada to the United States. A spokeswoman said the company is studying ways to expand the program globally.)
Call it penance for eco-conscious travellers: A growing number of travel websites and non-profit groups are selling so-called carbon offsets designed to compensate for travel-generated emissions by reducing levels of greenhouse gases in some unrelated way.
“It's kind of nice when you're up there motoring along at 500 miles an hour, spewing stuff into the atmosphere, to know at least a little bit will be taken care of,” Miller says.
Earlier this year, Calgary-based WestJet began passing a percentage of airfares to the Offsetters Climate Neutral Society, a Vancouver-based organization that funds environmental projects, when customers book through the www.offsetters.ca website. “It's sort of like a finder's fee or a commission,” said WestJet spokeswoman Gillian Bentley, who declined to disclose the amount donated for each ticket.
Offsetters, in turn, is partnered with Climate Care Trust, a U.K.-based group that operates projects ranging from reforestation in Uganda to installing efficient light bulbs in Asia. British Airways is also partnered with Climate Care, designing a carbon-emission calculator used by the organization at www.climatecare.org/britishairways. Air Canada, for its part, has been evaluating similar programs, but no decision has been made to launch one, according to spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.
Generally, here's how it works: Travellers go to one of several carbon-offset websites — www.carbonneutral.com and www.resurgence.org/carboncalculator, for example — and use a “carbon calculator” to determine the approximate amount of carbon dioxide produced when they drive, fly or otherwise burn fossil fuels. Then they buy “offsets,” donating money for projects that promise to produce energy without burning fossil fuels or otherwise reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The reduction financed by the purchase is supposed to equal the amount of gas the trip created. Typically, the price is anywhere from $5.60 to $33, depending on the length of the trip and the form of transportation. (Some sites also offer predetermined fees based on popular itineraries so travellers don't have to log their exact mileage.)
