Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car recently launched a new customer carbon offset program, which is designed to give customers a simple way to address the environmental impact of renting a car. The pilot phase of the program began on Jan. 1, 2008.

When reserving a car through the company’s call-in reservation centers or online, customers can opt in to pay $1.25 per rental (plus applicable taxes) to purchase a carbon offset. Under this new program, in partnership with TerraPass, the funds will be used to purchase certified offset projects that work to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

For every 100,000 customers who choose to participate, the effort will offset more than 30 million pounds of CO2, according to TerraPass.

Enterprise, National and Alamo, which are owned by the Taylor family of St. Louis, have also committed to double the effort with a dollar-for-dollar match of its customers’ offset purchases up to $1 million.

The company estimates that if all of the renters reached by the program opted in, their offset purchases, plus the matching funds, could offset approximately half the carbon produced by the combined Enterprise, National and Alamo fleets.

The $1.25 charge represents the cost of offsetting the CO2 impact of the average rental vehicle operating in the company’s fleet. Customers can purchase their carbon offsets while booking their reservations through call-in reservation centers or online at enterprise.com, nationalcar.com, or alamo.com.