Carbon offset company TerraPass on Tuesday announced a deal with online shipper uShip which will allow shippers to advertise their services as “carbon neutral.”
TerraPass is one of several companies to offer services to balance an individual’s carbon emissions stemming from driving or home energy use. People pay offset companies to purchase carbon credits which are investments in renewable energy or energy efficiency projects.
The idea with uShip is that shippers can differentiate themselves to green consumers by being carbon balanced, said Tom Arnold the chief environmental officer of TerraPass.
The company established a similar deal with Expedia, which now has 1,000 people a week choosing to offset pollution generated from a flight, he said.
uShip will calculate the monthly greenhouse gas emissions associated with a shipper’s business booked on uShip and then balance them with a TerraPass offset.
The deal “shows even start up Web 2.0 companies can build these mechanisms into their services,” Arnold said. “We have seen in Expedia, it really helps the parent brand of the companies that run these programs.”
