The debate about carbon offsets rages on: Are they a true solution to encourage investment in clean, renewable energy and offset dirty fossil fuels? Or are they indulgences of the privileged that allow us to keep on with our polluting ways and a clear conscience?

TerraPass is a popular, for-profit seller of carbon offsets. They’ve leapt into the limelight with strategic partnerships like the one at Expedia.com, which allows customers booking travel reservations to also purchase carbon offsets to cancel out their transportation emissions. But this popularity has also made TerraPass a frequent target of carbon offset skeptics who argue that their customers use them for nothing more than a sort of "get out of polluting free" card.

So the company decided to take a close look at its customer base itself, and just completed a survey that examined customer behaviors and attitudes towards energy. Among the results, the company found the "indulgence factor" to be untrue among their customers.

While Terra Pass customers are buying carbon offsets to counteract their unavoidable dirty activities like driving a car, they are balancing it with other direct action and changes to their own lives. In general, they are doing much more than the average person is to make their lives clean and efficient, and carbon offsets are a component of that. For example, 64 percent have installed compact fluorescent light bulbs (personally, I think CFLs should be a requirement before you’re even allowed to buy offsets), 26 percent take public transportation to work, 6 percent have solar panels, 50 percent have contacted their elected official about global warming, and 69 percent contribute to "green" organizations.

Are offsets a "get out of polluting free" card? Not always. But whether you decide to purchase offsets yourself, first take a hard look at the immediate changes you can make to your own life. Energy efficiency measures are often the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to shrink your own carbon footprint.

Los Angeles Times
TerraPass

Also on GO:

The Green Options Interview: Erik Blachford, CEO of Terrapass

Prince Charles has cut his global warming emissions by 9 percent in the past year, according to an annual review (printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based ink) of the prince’s accounts. Charles has been carbon neutral since 2005.

More trains trips, less plane trips, and a Jaguar and Land Rover that run on cooking oil have sliced his footprint. He also farms organically, and gets electricity from renewable sources at his Highgrove estate.

Charles and his wife, Camilla, have promised to cut emissions even further. Future plans include converting the royal train to biodiesel fuel (Europe’s first biodiesel-powered passenger train – Virgin Trains – left the station earlier this month, a project of Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson).

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, praised the prince’s leadership:

"The fact that he reduced his carbon emissions by 9 percent in the last year alone highlights the potential for making rapid cuts in the nation's contribution to climate change.”

Others are more critical. Charles took heat a few months ago when he flew to New York to receive an environmental award. The prince’s principal private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, explained that Charles uses carbon offsets like funding tree planting or renewable energy projects to balance out the travel. “We’re doing it the best way we can at the moment,” he noted.

CNN

Genesys Conferencing is global provider of web, audio, and video conferencing services. It does business in 25 countries, including with nearly half of the Fortune Global 500 companies. Genesys has also made a strong commitment to energy efficiency and to cutting its global warming emissions. Last month, it appointed a Green Officer to drive and manage a sustainable development strategy and implement the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Standard.

So I spoke with Genesys’ Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Denise Persson, on May 30th.

Green Options: Why is Genesys Conferencing focusing so many resources on efficiency?

Denise Persson: It all started about five years ago. As a European company, we are more environmentally conscious. I’m Swedish, and in Sweden we recycle every single thing. We would never dream of throwing a piece of paper in the trash. So this direction for the company was very natural for a lot of us. We wanted to do all that we could to make it more efficient and more responsible in terms of climate change.

GO: Tell me more about this global certification program and how Genesys is involved.

DP: The Environmental Management Systems is a certification process that we are working towards for all of our European, North American, and Asian-Pacific offices. We are focusing on energy savings and waste reduction, like computers that turn off automatically, recycling programs, and efficient lighting. We even make sure our cleaning company recycles.

GO: Does Genesys participate in any green power programs?

DP: No we do not – we don’t own our building. However we make sure that we are as efficient as possible in other areas.

GO: Let’s face it, energy efficiency isn’t sexy – how did you sell this initiative to your shareholders or management?

DP: It’s really amazing; we didn’t have to “sell” anything. We are seeing more and more RFPs [requests for proposals] from customers that ask about environmental management plans. In fact, our customers are hearing questions about efficiency from their customers. So we want to implement even more telecommuting options so our customers can reduce their carbon footprints. It’s a very bottom-up initiative and a reason we went for the Environmental Management Systems certification.

GO: What other energy-related measures is Genesys working on?

DP: So far we’ve developed a cost calculator on our website that includes the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions customers save by using our web conferencing services instead of flying to meeting locations. Our customers love that tool.

We’re also doing a lot of surveys of customers' needs. Our next major step is certification by the end of this year, and we also want to educate more of our customers. We want to help them figure out how to implement even more telecommuting practices that cut down on pollution, time, and cost.

I’m so excited about these initiatives. I’m very proud of my organization because we’re doing everything we can on this issue. It’s wonderful to be able to combine something that’s important to me with my job. It’s so important to work for a global company that takes this [climate change] problem seriously.

Genesys Conferencing
ISO 14000/14001 Environmental Management Guide
Office of the Federal Environmental Executive

With all sorts of vehicles touting fuel efficiency, low emissions, and a dizzying array of alternative fuels, what's a person to do? If you need a vehicle, how do you find the best one that does what you need but doesn't do in the planet? The answers aren't so clear-cut (so to speak).

Want a hybrid car? There are full hybrids and mild hybrids. The Toyota Prius, a full hybrid, connects an electric motor and a battery to a standard combustion engine. A mild hybrid, like the Honda Insight, works the electric motor only when extra power is needed. This can make it slightly more efficient than a regular vehicle in stop-and-go traffic, but it can't run on battery power alone and doesn't offer the same fuel efficiency as a full hybrid.

Then there are plug-in hybrids, which are out on the roads but not yet mass produced. A plug-in hybrid has a battery pack that can power the vehicle for up to 60 miles - further than most people drive in a day. If you do have a longer trip, the engine kicks in automatically after the battery runs out of juice. You can recharge the battery using an ordinary 120-volt socket.

Let's not forget about the whole swath of alternative fuel vehicles, which can be a murkier area for a lot of people.

Efficient and cleaner diesel vehicles - which can compete with full hybrids in terms of fuel efficiency - have taken off in Europe. According to Business Week, 50 percent of all vehicles sold in Europe are diesel-powered, by only 1.5 percent of U.S. vehicles are diesel. However, a study done by JD Power & Associates predicts that number to double by 2012. Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler all expect to sell diesel vehicles in all 50 U.S. states by the end of 2008.

There are about 3.5 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road right now, all of which can run on a blend of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol, or E85. It's cleaner burning than straight gasoline, and helps strengthen rural economies. But many people don't even know whether their vehicles can handle E85, or don't have easy access to E85 pumps. Infrastructure continues to be an issue, and there's a lot of talk that we'll soon see ethanol made from a more efficient plant source than corn.

For better or for worse, there's no easy answer when it comes to "Which car is the greenest?" Whether it's hybrid, diesel, a plug-in, or ethanol, you'll want to do your homework when determining which shade of green is best for you. Click here for some of the latest models.

about.com
Business Week
Edmunds.com
National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition
Plug-In Partners