What is CoolPass™?

CoolPass™ is the source for people and businesses who wish to take responsibility for their part in global warming and make a meaningful contribution. Through CoolPass™ you can learn how to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases you produce, and help fund green energy projects which help stop global warming and climate change. Using our calculators, you can find how much CO₂ you produce, learn how to reduce your personal emissions, and offset what you can't. Our CoolPass ™ calculators help you determine your carbon emissions for all of the activities of daily living such as: driving, flying, and home energy use. We can help you to balance your carbon emissions from college dorm energy use, wedding and other events, as well as business energy use. Through CoolPass ™, you can also balance your emissions by funding industrial carbon reduction and energy producing projects that help stop climate change. CoolPass ™ directly funds projects that might otherwise not get done and directly assists low-income homeowners participate in EnergyStar Home Performance and Weatherization programs. With CoolPass ™ can help you save energy and money, and help the environment at the same time.

What is a carbon footprint?

Your 'carbon footprint' represents the total amount greenhouse gases you personally generate and release into the atmosphere. The 'carbon' represents carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ , the principal cause of global warming. You generate CO₂ whenever you use energy created from fossil fuels such as oil or coal. Your carbon footprint is created by:

Home heating and cooling; Driving; Flying; Using electricity

The things you buy also contributes to your carbon footprint, because energy was required to create and transport them. To estimate your carbon footprint from your everyday life or business, use our carbon calculators.

How can I reduce my carbon footprint?

Reducing the energy you use is the only way to reduce your carbon footprint. Unless you live in a cave, it is virtually impossible to reduce your carbon footprint to zero by energy conservation alone. With CoolPass you first reduce your energy usage and your resulting carbon footprint, and then Offset the rest.

What is a carbon offset?

The principal cause of global warming is CO_2. A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions. Using carbon offsets is simple. When a business or energy producer creates a project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset. Project developers can then sell these offsets to help finance their projects to make them economically feasible. There are hundreds of different types of carbon reduction projects including clean renewable energy like wind and solar power, which reduces carbon emissions from coal and oil burning power plants. In order to finance its operations, the producer can sell these reductions in the form of carbon offsets. Industries reduce their carbon emissions by using carbon capturing technologies, using solar or wind generators for their electrical usage, or changing the way they produce, package and transport their products. When they do this in a verifiable way, they can sell their reductions as carbon credits. Carbon Offsetters like CoolPass buy these credits and remove them from the market by selling the retirement of the credit to individuals and businesses wishing to offset the emissions they create. That retirement 'Offsets' the buyer's emissions, and the carbon removed by this transaction represents CO₂ removed forever from the atmosphere. This is the same method used by countries subscribing to the Kyoto Protocols.

Why buy carbon offsets?

CoolPass ™ carbon offsets help you offset your own contribution to global warming by funding greenhouse gas reductions. Of course, fighting climate change begins with personal conservation. Drive a fuel-efficient a car or truck. Reduce your driving by carpooling or using public transportation. Cut back on air travel. Lower your thermostat in winter and raise it in summer. Even after serious conserving, most people will still have a carbon footprint. With CoolPass ™ carbon offsets, you can balance out 100% of the emissions you can't eliminate through conservation helping you to achieve a Zero Carbon Footprint.

Does CoolPass™ sell carbon offsets?

From our consumer web site at www.CoolPass.com, we sell the retirement of carbon offsets on your behalf so that they are removed from circulation forever. By retiring the offsets, CoolPass insures that the underlying CO₂ is never traded again and that the result is a positive environmental impact. CoolPass then destroys the monetary value of the offsets by registering them as retired.

Our commercial consulting division sells carbon offset certificates which are maintained on our registry in a Valid (non-retired) status until we are instructed to retire them on a clients behalf. Our clients may purchase these Valid offsets and hold them for future retirement, or transfer them to another entity in either Valid or Retired status. This allows our clients to buy in much larger increments suitable for commercial enterprises or hold them as a guard against future price changes.

How often do you offset CO₂?

We purchase and retire carbon offsets periodically, in accordance with the offsets whose retirement we sell.

Are carbon offsets a substitute for conservation?

No. Conservation is an essential way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, particularly in the near term when the world is making the switch over to clean energy sources. But it is difficult to eliminate all of your carbon emissions through conservation. That's where CoolPass™ comes in. If you still fly, drive a car or buy electricity and gas for your home, we can help you take responsibility for your global warming impact by balancing out your remaining carbon emissions.

Do CoolPass™ carbon offsets meet the important test of 'additionality' ?

Additionality is an important metric when evaluating the quality of carbon offsets. The test measures whether an offset represents real carbon reductions, or whether the reductions would have happened anyway. If the purchase of carbon offsets is a critical factor in making the reductions happen, the reductions are said to be 'additional', and not business-as-usual. For instance, some carbon offsetters use the planting of trees as an offset to CO_2. While trees are important, many logging companies are required to re-plant forests they cut as a condition to harvesting. That would be business-as-usual and not meet a quality additionality standard. CoolPass™ offsets are additional, adhering to strict third-party additionality standards and verification. CoolPass™ is a strong proponent of quality standards in the voluntary offset market, and we purchase our offsets from verified and audited exchange sources.

How is CoolPass™ different from other offset companies?

CoolPass offsets are derived from regulated and verified carbon exchange transactions of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). The projects trading greenhouse gas emissions on this exchange are largely from industrial companies, cities and government organizations making real-world reductions today. Every project is legally binding, verified and audited. This is exactly how carbon emissions are traded in the Annex 1 countries subscribing to the Kyoto Protocols, many of which are traded on exchanges managed by the same organization as the CCX. We believe that this type of regulated trading offers the highest quality offset available.

Is CoolPass™ independently audited and verified?

Yes. To ensure maximum transparency and accountability, every CoolPass™ offset purchase is verified and audited. CCX carbon reduction and clean energy projects are verified by independent environmental auditors. CoolPass™ also submits its carbon accounts to an independent annual audit by Certified Public Accountants. This audit covers several aspects of our business:

Purchases - to insure that we buy the necessary amount of carbon offsets on behalf of our customers.

Offset quality - to assure we adhere to the quality standards we represent.

Retirement - to assure that we donate every carbon offset for retirement.

How does CoolPass calculate how much CO₂ I need to offset?

Our carbon calculators use averages and statistics from the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency to estimate your usage based on what you input. Our simplified carbon offset purchases are based upon national averages.