Rental car group creates carbon offset program

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The Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental Group has announced the launch of a new and comprehensive environmental program.

A rental car customer is given the option of paying an additional $1.25 per rental, plus taxes, to buy a carbon offset. Funds collected are then used by the Group to make purchases in offset projects that are certified to help remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere. In the scheme, the rental car operator group is partnered with TerraPass, a leading carbon offsets provider.

For every 100,000 customers who take part in the program, over 13,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide are offset, according to TerraPass. The rental car group is committing to match customer offset purchases, in an amount of up to $1 million.

According to estimates, renter purchases and the matching funds combined could offset as much as half the carbon produced by the Alamo, Enterprise and National fleets.

TerraPass calculated that $1.25 is the cost of offsetting the carbon produced by an average rental vehicle in the fleet. In the combined fleet of more than 440,000 vehicles, the average highway fuel rating is 28mpg.

Alamo, Enterprise and National also offer a large number of flex-fuel vehicles in their combined fleet. More than 73,000 of the cars and trucks offered for rent can burn E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol and 14 percent gasoline blend.

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