What is a carbon offset?
A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of global warming. Although complex in practice, carbon offsets are fairly simple in theory. If you develop a project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset. Project developers can then sell these offsets to finance their projects.

Where your money goes
When you buy a carbon offset from TerraPass, your money supports clean energy and other projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our offset portfolio consists of a mix of clean energy, farm power and landfill gas capture. If you want to decide the quantities of these projects yourself, you can build your own portfolio.

Clean energy
When a wind farm generates power, it displaces electricity generated by conventional sources such as coal and natural gas. Those conventional sources produce carbon dioxide emissions because they burn fossil fuels to spin their turbines, whereas wind farms don't use fossil fuels at all. They're virtually carbon-free!

Farm power
Your money helps farmers capture and destroy the methane, a powerful global warming gas which forms when managing animal waste. It supports the installation and operation of anaerobic digesters, lagoon covers, and electricity generators.

Landfill gas capture
The trash we bury in landfills decomposes slowly, producing methane which escapes into the atmosphere. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas - about 21 times as powerful as carbon dioxide - so projects which capture and destroy that gas are of great benefit to the climate. These projects capture the methane from landfills using wells, pipes, caps, blowers and other technology; and destroy the gas by burning it in a flare.

TerraPass offsets and verification
We're committed to delivering only the highest quality carbon offsets. We want to be certain of it, and we want you to be sure of this too, so we get everything checked and double-checked, every step of the way.

Every reduction at every project in our portfolio will be verified by an accredited third party.
Once a year, a third party auditor verifies that we make all the reductions we claim.
This way, you know the reductions you pay for are really happening.