Rental Car Carbon Offset Program Proves Most Popular With Customers

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.

TerraPass 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. 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.

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.