Contact Information: For more information, contact: Erik Blachford TerraPass 415-692-3411 Becky Vollmer Fleishman-Hillard 314-982-9198
Rental Car Carbon Offset Program Proves Most Popular With Consumers
More Than 175,000 Alamo, Enterprise and National Customers Participate in Offset Program
| Source: TerraPass Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - April 6, 2009) - In the year since Alamo Rent A Car,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental launched a program that
enables their customers to offset the carbon emissions associated with the
average vehicle rental, more than 175,000 customers have participated.
Alamo, Enterprise and National are owned by the Taylor family of St. Louis.
"We believe this is the most popular consumer opt-in offset program in the
travel industry and quite possibly any industry," said Erik Blachford,
chief executive officer of TerraPass. "It's certainly the most popular
program we've seen, and participation continues to grow."
TerraPass (www.terrapass.com) manages the certified offset projects funded
by these voluntary contributions. In the program's first year,
approximately 175,000 Alamo, Enterprise and National customers paid $1.25
per rental to participate, generating $220,000 for offset projects. In
addition, the companies' charitable arm has made an equal match, bringing
to nearly $440,000 the funds that will be directed to offset projects. This
is part of the companies' commitment to match customers' offset purchases
-- dollar for dollar -- up to $1 million.
The overall impact: More than 42,000 metric tons of carbon have been
offset. Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards,
that's equivalent to saving 4.8 million gallons of gasoline and 98,000
barrels of oil.
By opting in to pay $1.25 per rental, customers fund several certified
offset projects that work to remove CO2 from the atmosphere -- including
farm power projects that turn animal waste into electricity, and
gas-capture projects that trap and destroy methane gas produced by
landfills. The largest of the TerraPass initiatives funded by the program
so far is the Worcester County Landfill Gas to Energy Project on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland that is one of the nation's first projects to be
validated under the internationally recognized Voluntary Carbon Standard.
"This used to be just another landfill," said Lee Broughton, director of
corporate sustainability for the companies. "Together with our customers,
we have helped give it the financial boost it needed to incorporate
equipment and generators that will allow this landfill to keep roughly
100,000 metric tons of carbon emissions out of the air each year."
Examples of smaller projects include the Scenic View Dairy facilities in
western Michigan. Credits from these projects are verified according to
the Climate Action Reserve, a nationally recognized standard for voluntary
carbon reductions.
"That is exactly the kind of impact we envisioned when we started this
program a year ago," Broughton said.
In the first year, the carbon offset program was offered at participating
locations in the U.S. and Canada. Customers worldwide can quickly and
easily purchase their carbon offsets while booking their reservations
through call-in reservations centers or online at www.alamo.com,
www.enterprise.com or www.nationalcar.com.
"We have long been committed to managing our business sustainably and for
the long haul, and this offset program is one more way to deliver on that
commitment," said Andy Taylor, the companies' chairman and chief executive
officer. "We have collaborated with our customers and together have begun
addressing the parts of the world we touch with our business, and we are
grateful to our customers for sharing in that responsibility by making this
simple and sustainable choice to benefit the environment."
The $1.25 offset charge represents the cost of offsetting the CO2 impact of
the average rental vehicle operating in the company's fleet. TerraPass
calculated the dollar amount, based on the average vehicle fuel economy,
miles driven per rental and number of days per rental over the past year
for the combined Alamo, Enterprise and National North American fleet.
About TerraPass
Launched in 2004, TerraPass Inc. works with developers of greenhouse gas
reduction projects to bring to market verified carbon credits. The company
is also a leading retailer of carbon offsets and consumer energy efficiency
products through www.terrapass.com. Individuals, families and businesses
who are balancing out the global warming impact of their flying, driving
and home and office energy use have collectively made more than 150,000
purchases of carbon offsets from TerraPass and its partners. Together,
TerraPass carbon offsets have funded reductions of over 1 billion pounds of
carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of climate change. TerraPass
works with clean energy and carbon emissions reduction projects throughout
the U.S., including wind power, farm power and landfill gas capture. One
hundred percent of TerraPass carbon credits are verified against a broadly
accepted standard by independent, third-party verifiers. For more
information, visit www.terrapass.com.
About Alamo, Enterprise and National
The Taylor family of companies has the rental car industry's most
comprehensive environmental sustainability platform. In addition to its
carbon offset program, initiatives include embracing new, clean
technologies; operating the world's largest fleet of fuel-efficient
vehicles; funding research into renewable fuels; and supporting
conservation efforts. In recent months, the company added 5,000 new
gas/electric hybrid vehicles to its nationwide fleet, more than doubling
the number of hybrids it owns. In addition, the company's charitable
foundation has pledged $50 million to plant 50 million trees over 50 years
through the 50 Million Tree Pledge, a public/private/nonprofit partnership
with the Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. All told, over
the past several years the Taylor family and their company have contributed
or pledged more than $120 million to environmental initiatives. For more
information about the full environmental platform, visit
www.keystogreen.com.