TerraPass and a mission to reduce my emissions

(Writing that title suddenly reminded me I have to get our yearly emissions test done)

I just bought a TerraPass.


I wanted to wait till the end of this year to calculate how much gas we used and calculate how much CO2 we’ve emitted.
Our nice little Honda gave us an average of 43mpg over 9,600 miles this year.
That calculates to:

Fuel use:
223 gallons per year

Emissions:
4,363 lbs CO2 per year

A TerraPass is basically a donation to fund clean energy initiatives in the amount that offsets the amount of emissions our car produced.

From TerraPass:

How does TerraPass work?

A Road TerraPass is a decal you place on your car showing that you have sponsored a clean energy project that balances out the environmental impact of your driving.

TerraPass funds clean energy from sources like wind farms, methane capture facilities, and more.

By replacing energy from fossil fuels with clean energy, TerraPass reduces carbon dioxide emissions. These reductions balance the emissions from your car.

TerraPass is audited by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions to verify the impact of our clean energy investments.

Now, getting a TerraPass doesn’t mean I can just drive around where ever we want to. Mindy and I discussed the goal of reducing the amount of miles we drive over the course of the year as well.
It’s surprising that we drove 9600 miles this year, which averages to nearly 26 miles a day. The large amount of those miles come from trips home to visit family, but it ends up adding up. I’d love to reduce our driving by 20%, but that might end up being too ambitious. That would be 7680 miles or 640 miles a month. We’ll see what happens.

For those in big cities I’d strongly recommend looking into Car Sharing Programs.

P.S. I’m not sharing all this with you cause I’m “into it” or cause “it’s my thing.” I’m sharing it because I’ve recognized that my lifestyle is unsustainable and is thus not being a faithful steward of God’s green earth. I just want to share with you how I’m trying to do that.

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