Filed under: Carbon Offset
Van rental company becomes first in the nation to go carbon neutral
Bandago Van Rentals has announced that they are teaming up with DriveNeutral to completely offset their national rental fleet. Bandago specializes in renting full-sized vans for longer trips, particularly for touring musicians and anyone else who needs a larger vehicle for a road trip. DriveNeutral is a non-profit group that arranges carbon offsets for member companies through the Chicago Climate Exchange. Bandago will be offsetting 823 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
[Source: Bandago, thanks to Sharky for the tip]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil L. 4:49PM (8/09/2007)
One other notable item regarding Bandago: They have trailer hitches on (at least some of) their vans and, unlike most in the rental business, allow you to tow a trailer.
This is very useful for folks who only need a large vehicle occasionally - but also need to be able to tow a trailer.
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virgil 5:17PM (8/09/2007)
That # of 823 sounds fishy. The average car driver makes about 1 ton of CO2 per 1000 miles, so if they rent to only 1600 people a year, and each renter drives 500 miles, that's all their allowance used up.
And let's not even get started on whether or not carbon neutralization companies are all a big con in the first place!
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Sharky Laguana 11:07PM (8/24/2007)
Virgil,
Actually our average vehicle does about 80k miles a year due to working primarily with touring musicians.
The answer to your conundrum is that we are still a small company as far as rental companies go, and also that we rent Diesel Sprinters (relatively low emissions and high fuel efficiency), and encourage our clients to use bio-diesel wherever possible. So a combination of small size and higher efficiency results in the number that LiveNeutral calculated for us.
FWIW We also have a solar powered office in SF, and all employees live within a mile of our offices. Most of us walk or ride a bike to work.
The carbon neutral question is an ongoing one, however I'll add a couple points:
a) when we are talking about car rental companies, buying carbon credits is better then doing nothing, which is what 99.99% of our competitors are doing. If you, or any one else, has any suggestions for a better way to run a green van rental company (or even just improve what we are already doing) please feel free to send your suggestions to info@bandago.com. We'll definitely give any advice we receive serious consideration. This isn't just something we are paying lip service to. It's a serious and heartfelt committment.
b) if you are going to buy carbon credits, the CCX seems to be one of the more vetted ways to get it done. They aren't out planting trees and crossing their fingers, they are actually facilitating the net reduction of carbon emissions from giant corporations like DuPont by signing them to legally binding contracts and having the emissions auditied and verified by a neutral third party.
I'm with you on your skepticism about carbon neutral programs, but until we get some proper oversight and regulatory help, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Take a minute to evaluate the various options out there, because from what I can tell, there are some options that do actually accomplish something. In the meantime, it seems to me that any kind of forward movement made in the auto rental industry towards enviromental awareness is a positive step.
Sincerely,
Sharky Laguana
Bandago
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