Terrapass Standards

 Complete transparency in everything we do.

 

Our Principles

Terrapass is committed to delivering only the highest quality environmental products to our customers. We are proud to be the leading provider of carbon offsets in terms of quality and transparency, for which we have received extensive recognition. The Terrapass product integrity process includes three elements: 

  1. Procurement Standards 
  2. Project Due Diligence 
  3. Independent Third-Party Audit 

 

We adopt the highest standards

One hundred percent of our carbon offsets are verified against broadly accepted standards by independent third-party verifiers. In other words, an outside expert confirms that a specific quantity of emissions reductions has actually occurred.  Terrapass utilizes the industry’s most rigorous carbon offset standards, which assure transparency and quality in the creation, quantification, and verification of offset projects. These standards require that offsets be real, additional (i.e., they wouldn’t have happened under a “business as usual” scenario), permanent, quantifiable, never double-counted or double-sold, and independently verified.  Currently, Terrapass uses the Gold Standard, Verra, the Climate Action Reserve, and the American Carbon Registry as our only carbon offset standards.  These standards ensure that you receive the highest quality offsets available. 

Second, we only purchase carbon offsets that have been generated within the last 5 years or less. This ensures that our customer purchases support incremental carbon emission reduction and create demand for new project development. 

Third, we only purchase from project types that use highly regarded and widely accepted scientific methodologies for carbon emission reduction. These project types currently include Methane Capture and Destruction, HFC/ODS Industrial Gas Destruction, and Forestry. 

 

We Inspect every project

Terrapass performs our own due diligence on each project. We confirm and document important project characteristics including: 

  • Ownership, location, methodology, and additionality of carbon emission reductions. 
  • History, current operating status, and total carbon offsets generated annually. 
  • Site inspections, performance data and carbon offset calculations. 
  • Public information including project related websites and news articles. 

 

Our customer purchases are verified every step of the way

We enlist a separate accredited and independent accounting firm to verify that we realize the exact number of emissions reductions for our customers in accordance with the promises we’ve made to them. 

 

We keep our prices competitive

Because we source carbon credits that meet high standards, we simply can’t meet the prices offered by providers who do not adhere to the same quality standards. That doesn’t mean we charge premium prices though; we charge a fair price for a great product. We think our customers appreciate the value of knowing with certainty that their offset purchase is making a difference for the environment.

 

Our mission is to fight climate change

Terrapass is a mission-driven business. Unlike many other businesses we have a social goal. We strive to reduce the greatest amount of carbon emissions we can. We do this through education, online tools, carbon credits and renewable energy certificates. 

We are passionate about fighting climate change. We believe the best way to do it is by running our business as a business, and by pushing ourselves to run a lean and efficient operation that can grow to meet the enormous challenge we face in climate change.