officer. Offsetting your entire house would
run anywhere from $30 to $400, depend-
ingon size, location, andother factors.
One of the biggest draws to carbon-
offsetting is the convenience of it. You can
find TerraPasses and other carbon-offset
options on the shelves at many retailers as
well as through the Internet. In fact, most
of the 67,000 TerraPasses that have been
sold so far have beenpurchased online, Ar-
nold says. “Business is very good,” he adds.
“It’sbeen roughlydoubling every year.”
TerraPass takes the revenues from its
sales and invests in wind-energy projects,
projects that upgrademunicipal landfills in
order to reduce the landfills’ emissions, and
biomass projects that aim to create energy
from cowmanure. Those investments add
up to a lot of carbon offsets. Last year, Ar-
nold says, the carbon-credit industry offset
about 30million tons of carbon emissions.
If you want to play the carbon offset
credit game, startby checkingout anonline
carbon calculator.Theoneon theTerraPass
website (
calculates the
amount of carbon thatneeds tobeoffset for
a car, home, dorm room, and even a wed-
ding. Enter a few tidbits of information
such as your home’s zip code and recent
monthly energy bills and you’ll be told ap-
proximately howmuch carbon you’re emit-
tingandwhat itwill cost to counteract it.
The trading of carbon-offset credits has
survived controversy, some of which has
stemmed from questions about whether
certain credit sellers are offering offsets of
littleornovalue. Today, companies likeTer-
raPass engage third-party auditors to verify
the quality of the offsets. In the future, says
Arnold, big changes will come in the way
consumers buy carbon offsets. “Just think
abouthoweasy it is tobuy travel insurance,”
he says. “Youcanbuy from theairline, at the
airport — wherever you want. We have to
make carbon creditsmainstream—aquick,
easy, check-the-box thing.” And, it’s already
happening. General Electric recently an-
nounced a new credit card that lets card-
holders earnnot shoppingor travel rewards
— or even cash back, for thatmatter— but
carbon-offset credits.
GreenTravel
Gettingthere ishalf the fun,but it’salsopart
of the conundrum facingmodern travelers.
Namely, how can you get to the places you
needorwant togowithouthavinganundue
negative impact on the environment? The
answer is green travel, which, accord-
ing to Mullis, “means to focus on
limiting your negative impact and
improving yourpositive impact.”
In the old sense, green travel
means visiting locales noted for envi-
ronmental charm. Ecotourismmay take
you toa tent resort in the rain forest, or toa
floatinghotel thathasbeen towed toa sum-
mertime locationonaCanadian lake to
avoid affecting the environment to
the same degree that a permanent,
year-round facility does. This kind
of green travel is enjoyable and in
demand, and while it helps remind
travelersof thebeautyandpleasureofun-
fromdiscardedplastic soda bottles.
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In order toprevent the TajMahal frombeing polluted, visitorsmust parknearly twomiles away and take
We’ll do the grilling. You choose the sauce.
Each night at BonefishGrill we offermarket-fresh fish,
cooked to perfection over awood-burning grill. We invite
you to top it off with a signature sauce of your choosing.
WeGet Fish. YouGet Fresh.
®
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LABAMA
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RIZONA
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RKANSAS
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OLORADO
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LORIDA
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EORGIA
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LLINOIS
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NDIANA
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OWA
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ANSAS
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ENTUCKY
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OUISIANA
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ARYLAND
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ICHIGAN
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ISSISSIPPI
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ISSOURI
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ORTH
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AROLINA
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OUTH
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AROLINA
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ENNESSEE
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ASHINGTON
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ISCONSIN
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COM
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