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10 Carbon Offset Providers You Can Trust

Written by Heather Riley 06/03/2008
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From Brentdanley via FlickrWith a million options out there for offsetting your carbon emissions—for everything from driving your car, to traveling to Nha Trang, to powering your kids’ dorm rooms—it’s hard to know where to begin making a difference. There’s hot debate about how much good offsets really do, and even if you’ve done your research and decided you’re a believer, many offset websites are confusing or difficult to navigate.

Here are ten offset providers that we like, along with links to their sites and some info on why they’re the real deal.

1. Sustainable Travel International

Sustainable Travel International promotes responsible tourism by supporting sustainable development and helping travelers protect the locales they visit. In addition to being easy to use, their site is also incredibly informative, and has an eco-directory to help users make responsible travel choices.

2. Native Energy

Purchasing offsets from Native Energy makes a direct impact because your money goes towards financing the construction of specific new renewable energy development, like methane projects and farmer-owned and distributed wind turbines. Many of the projects benefit Native Americans, Alaska Native Villages, family farmers and rural communities.

3. LiveNeutral

San Francisco’s LiveNeutral is easy to use, and their emissions credits come from Chicago Climate Exchange, which supplies high-quality, third-party-verified and legally accountable emissions reductions credits.

4. DrivingGreen.com

Driving Green is one of the most user-friendly sites in the bunch. In fact, the only drawback is the lack of choice when it comes to where your donation goes. But your donation does go to funding the equipment for converting animal waste into renewable energy, a highly effective project.

5. Carbonfund.org

Carbonfund.org is a nonprofit that aims to offer consumers an easy in to a wide variety of offset options. Their carbon calculator tabulates your offsetting cost and contributing to the various funds is a snap. Plus, they have an entertaining and informative blog.

6. e-bluehorizons

e-bluehorizons works with the Conservation Fund (one of the nation’s foremost environmental nonprofits since 1985) on their ‘carbon sequestration through reforestation’ climate change program. Since 2001 the Fund has protected 20,000 acres of land and planted five million trees. Not bad.

7. CO2 Balance

This U.K.-based company was ranked among the top eight retail offset providers in a report by CleanAir-CoolPlanet for the information available and the prioritization of offset quality. Their U.S. site is still under construction, but don’t let it stop you from creating an account on their U.K. site.

8. TerraPass

What sets TerraPass apart from other offset providers is how easy it is to figure out where your money is actually going. And unlike many other companies, they guarantee the carbon offsets you purchase will be used in the year you buy them.

9. Atmosfair

German company Atmosfair focuses on air travel and climate. They even let you add a stopover to the flight you’re calculating emissions for! The downside? Like co2balance, Atmosfair doesn’t have an American website yet, and unfortunately, that means you have to pay in Euros. Ouch.

10. EcoVoom

EcoVoom wants to ‘voom’ you. That’s just their quirky way of saying they want to help you calculate your carbon emissions. The site is designed so a toddler could use it, and I mean that in a good way—so many carbon offset companies seem determined to confuse and befuddle their users. Excellent carbon calculator, and the site is full of bright and charming graphics.

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