For drivers who want to ease guilt from generating carbon dioxide emissions, purchasing a TerraPass may be worth the money. Led by Chief Executive Officer Tom Arnold '98, the TerraPass program, a for-profit venture, was designed to combat global warming by offering to help them offset their carbon dioxide emissions. William Schlesinger '72 and George Favaloro Tu'88 serve as advisors to the environmentally-friendly company.
As a graduate student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Arnold helped the company's founder Karl Ulrich develop TerraPass along with 40 classmates in 2004. The team designed TerraPass to help people reduce the environmental impact of their driving. Ulrich, who was Arnold's professor at the time, currently heads the group's "Operations and Information Management" department.
Drivers can use the TerraPass website to calculate the carbon emissions their vehicles produce. They may then purchase the appropriate TerraPass based on the cost to reduce that amount of carbon dioxide. In exchange for their contribution, they receive a TerraPass window decal, a TerraPass bumper sticker and a TerraPass clear decal.
The money the company earns is then invested in renewable energy projects to balance out an individual's "carbon-footprint" -- the amount of carbon dioxide one vehicle releases into the atmosphere each year. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide contribute to global warming by thickening the atmosphere and preventing heat from escaping.
TerraPass does not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide a person's car produces nor does it alter a person's car. Rather, the program seeks to offset these emissions using market mechanisms to promote the development of clean energy.
Prices for the driving package range from $29.95 to $79.95 per year.
The company has since expanded the TerraPass program to compensate for emissions produced from sources other than automobiles, such as from airline travel or home energy use.
Current projects which TerraPass supports include investments in wind power, in the production of energy from burning cow manure and in industrial efficiency.
TerraPass has eliminated over 150 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions through such projects, according to its website.
Arnold cited the sheer number of people who have purchased TerraPasses as one of the company's biggest successes.
"This was a crazy idea when we started talking to people two years ago," Arnold said. "It's 50 bucks and you get a bumper sticker. People were like, 'Are you crazy? You're never going to sell that.'"
Right now, TerraPass boasts 37,000 users, and Arnold predicts that by the end of 2007 this figure will reach 100,000. The company's goal is to reach one million people, according to Arnold.
Arnold said that one of TerraPass' primary goals is to raise awareness about everyone's role in combatting global warming through publicity from sources like bumper stickers and window-decals.
"Global warming is not only about China," Arnold said. "It's also about you and your car."
In addition to selling TerraPasses, the company also runs a blog which posts weekly conservation tips and discusses global warming and carbon emissions.
Unlike the many non-profit organizations that advocate cleaner energy use, TerraPass is a for-profit business. Arnold attributes this decision to the difficulties of raising money to start up a non-profit organization.
Both Schlesinger and Arnold, who were members of the Dartmouth Outing Club as students, said that their experiences at the College motivated them to support environmental causes.
"Dartmouth was always the place where you could have these crazy ideas and take them places," Arnold said. "I was on [The Dartmouth] as well, and a big part of TerraPass' growth has been through working with journalists. I think it would be harder without a perspective of what it means to run a newspaper."
Schlesinger believes that Dartmouth offers many opportunities to learn about environmental issues, such as the Environmental Studies program.
