No. Offsets don’t actually reduce the emissions that come directly from your tailpipe. In fact, there are many noxious gases that come out of your tailpipe that don’t have anything to do with global warming. Smart driving habits, regular emissions testing and routine car maintenance can help keep your vehicle running as cleanly and efficiently as possible. And that helps reduce your climate impact, too.
More fuel efficient vehicles are a necessary part of any long-term strategy to fight climate change. If you are in the market for a new car and a hybrid suits your budget and needs, we think these cars are a great option.
But hybrid vehicles aren’t yet a viable option for every driver. And even hybrids put substantial amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - on average about 4,000 lbs of CO2 per year. So even hybrid owners can use TerraPass carbon offsets to balance 100% of their car’s carbon dioxide emissions today.
Yes. TerraPass does not actually reduce the emissions that come directly from your tailpipe. In fact, there are many noxious gases that come out of your tailpipe that don’t have anything to do with global warming. Smart driving habits, regular emissions testing and routine car maintenance can help keep your vehicle running as cleanly and efficiently as possible. And that helps reduce your climate impact, too.
No. If you own a car, chances are that driving is the single biggest source of your individual carbon emissions. But that’s just a start. Two other categories of energy use are also potentially significant sources of carbon emissions:
Air travel. A round-trip flight between New York and Los Angeles uses about 120 gallons of jet fuel per passenger. This single trip is equivalent to about 2 months of driving.
Home energy use. Heating, cooling, and running appliances are as significant as driving for many people.
We use fuel economy data from the Environmental Protection Agency to estimate the miles per gallon of your car or truck. By coupling this information with an estimate of the number of miles you drive each year, we are able to determine how many gallons of gas you purchase on an annual basis. From here, it’s a simple calculation to convert gallons of gas to pounds of carbon dioxide.
If the final figure seems higher than you expected, remember that gasoline triples in weight when it is burned and turned into carbon dioxide.
Every TerraPass purchase comes with a money-back guarantee. If for any reason you’re not satisfied with your purchase, you can have a full refund. Just send us an email at support@terrapass.com requesting a refund within 30 days of placing your order, and return any shipped material to us in its original condition.
We will issue a refund only when the materials have been received in saleable condition. Shipping and insurance is at your expense.
Non-offset purchases that included free shipping will be refunded the full amount, less the initial shipping charge, where applicable. Please check with us for the full refund amount if you’re uncertain.
Liquid fuel such as gasoline roughly triples in weight when it is burned. That’s because fuel is mostly made of carbon. When the carbon is burned, it joins with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide. Even though it’s a gas, that oxygen is heavy. Carbon dioxide is roughly triple the weight of carbon alone. If you’re interested in the chemistry of this, more details are available in our blog post [How to turn 6 pounds of gasoline into 20 pounds of carbon dioxide](http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/2006/03/how-to-turn-6-pounds-of-gasoline-into-20-pounds-of-carbon-d.html).
Please submit the details of your vehicle to info@terrapass.com and we will try to incorporate it into our calculator in the near future. In the meantime, you can our carbon calculator to enter an estimate of your miles per gallon directly, so you can still find out big your carbon footprint from driving is.
