While Land Rover does make some concept vehicles that would be cleaner than their current production vehicles (see the LRX and the recently-unveiled Freelander 2 TD4_e), one of the company's longstanding policies to reduce the impact that their vehicles have on the environment is to offer carbon offsets (read more here and here). Today, Land Rover expanded its two-pronged strategy to include a new offset program in the Middle East - this one good for the first 72,000 kilometers put on a new vehicle, plus the CO₂ created when the vehicle was manufactured. Currently, Land Rover's offset program operates in France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Austria and some parts of the U.S. More areas will sign up later this year. All of Land Rover's offset projects are managed by Climate Care.

[Source: Land Rover]

Dealers for car companies have tried various carbon neutral offerings. A Land Rover shop in Oregon, for example, gave away carbon offsets for the first 50,000 miles of each new vehicle sold last year. But what did it take to make the new Volvo Trucks dealer in Verona, Italy totally carbon neutral? Solar cells on the roof.

Thanks to that eco-friendly update, the dealership produces more energy than it uses and the excess is fed back into the grid. Heat is generated from methane gas, but Volvo was clear that the solar panels above the building more than make up for this in carbon offset terms. The dealership was opened late last week, and Volvo is looking to make more of its dealerships carbon neutral. Not all will use the solar option, as local conditions will determine what renewable energy sources are used where.

[Source: Volvo]

Another airline has decided to give passengers the option to offset your carbon emissions when purchasing plane tickets. The latest carbon offset entrant is clickair, a low-cost company based in Barcelona, Spain. The story is that, due to Barcelona's airport placement between two lagoons and a protected area, the airline's carbon offsets take place close to El Prat de Llobregat airport, in a reserve by the Llobregat river.

Prices start at very acceptable levels (€ 3) and with low expectations: clickair expects to plant 250 trees through this program which will cover at least a little bit of the effects of its fleet of ten Airbus A320s.

[Source: Clickair]

Earlier this year, TerraPass sold its 100,000th sticker. The momentum to offset a vehicle's carbon emissions continues, and you can now participate in the program even if you're not in your car

uShip is a shipping service, and can help you move a vehicle when you need to get it somewhere but don't have the time or money to move it yourself. uShip also offers more traditional shipping options (think pianos or moving furniture), and it's this side of the company that partnered up with TerraPass. uShip's trucks now sport the TerraPass sticker (if I'm reading things correctly) which makes using the service carbon neutral.

uShip's Adam Greenspan told AutoblogGreen that the TerraPass partnership "is an effort to reduce the environmental impact of shipping. uShip also makes the shipping industry more efficient by filling empty cargo space and back hauls." Nothing that other shippers aren't trying (see here or here), but every time someone makes a greener decision, I'm pretty sure an angel gets its wings.

[Source: Adam G. of uShip]

In Robbinsville, New Jersey, the Professional Fire Fighters Local 3786 has see the light. Used to fighting fires around town, the fire fighters have gone green to help fight global warming. Compact florescent light bulbs and and other energy saving measures were implemented at the firehouse, but the big red firetruck got an upgrade as well. Two of the fire fighters' front line emergency response vehicles, one ambulance and one large fire truck, now sport TerraPass stickers signifying that the carbon emissions from the vehicles will be offset by clean energy investments. The cost of the two stickers were $558, much higher than what it costs for your standard commuter vehicle (usually $60-100 a year). The Local says they are the first public safety entity to join the TerraPass program, although other fire trucks have gone green - like the San Francisco biodiesel engines. One reason for choosing the TerraPass method over, say, testing out some new hybrid firetruck, is that the team's ability to respond to an emergency call is the same as before. As the video says, "We still do everything we always did, we just do it better and more efficiently." Criticize offsets all you want, at least this is a start.

Check out the firefighters' Go Green promotional video after the jump. Thanks to Ed for the tip!

California bill SB 1374, if passed and signed into a law, would allow any car to join the HOV sticker program as long as that vehicle is carbon neutral. This would mean someone driving alone in a Hummer could legally be allowed into the HOV lane, if the Hummer's emissions were offset. Senator Jim Battin officially proposed the legislation but his press release - which includes lines like "every owner of a polluting, flashy, fuel sucking car" - makes me think he is not serious. The law is starting to grow on me anyway. Why shouldn't a carbon neutral car - even a Hummer - be allowed in the HOV lane?

[Source: LAist]

It's a minor change, but over at TerraPass, the carbon-offset-powers-that-be have added a comparison bar to the online emissions calculator. Now, when you input information to figure out how much your indulgence TerraPass CO₂ offset sticker will cost you, you'll also see a yellow bar that compares your annual emissions with the average U.S. car. The blog entry that announces this addition also asks us for our input on the change. I like it, but would be very interested in seeing a bar that represents the average TerraPass customer's vehicles. Are the users driving eco-cars or not? Your thoughts?

Related:

• CO₂ offset milestone: 100,000 TerraPasses sold
• Survey of TerraPass members finds they're not buying away their guilt

[Source: TerraBlog]

We've covered some of the green car items that'll be on TV this afternoon, including an ad for the Yukon Hybrid, but what about the people who actually go to the game? What sort of cleaner driving angle can they add to their day? A couple, but I'm not convinced anyone will ever be able to call the Super Bowl an eco-friendly event.

Still, there are a few green spots to the big game. Fox Business reports that this year's Super Bowl, like last year's, will use renewable energy certificates to indirectly offset carbon emissions. Also, at least one "high-profile Super Bowl party" will be a "100% environmentally sustainable event this year." According to FB, that means that, "The green celebration will be a 'zero net waste event,' meaning that everything from the cups to the tablecloths – even human waste – will be processed and reused in some way."

From Auto Spectator, we learn that the first E85 station opened up this past week in Phoenix, where the game will be played. The pump is operated by Western States Petroleum, which also provides a lot of biodiesel to Arizona.

The Fox Business story ends with a fitting look at the football players, who aren't exactly known for their green work. As Brendan Sexton of the environmental consulting firm Sexton Company says that the players need to change vehicles. Kind of.

"Maybe we'll get them into some hybrid SUVs. That would be a step in the right direction," he told FB.

All right, kick off is in just a few minutes...

Related:

• Yukon Hybrid Super Bowl ad includes imagery from 1976 animated short
• Malibu, Vue hybrid Superbowl ads might not air because of low inventory
• Videos: Referees against SUVs in Brussels
• Making FA Cup 2007/08 soccer season carbon neutral
• It's the Colts, the Bears and Segways in Super Bowl action this weekend (2007 post)
• Football fans also getting hit by ethanol blitz (2007 post)

[Source: Fox Business, Auto Spectator]

The Federal Trade Commission held a public hearing Tuesday (Jan. 8) on how to regulate "green" advertising and they still want to know what you think. You can watch web-casts of the workshop and anyone is invited to submit comments before the January 25 deadline. Details on how to file a comment electronically, by paper or even confidentially can be found at the FTC website here.

As the New York Times reports, the FTC has not updated their green advertising guidelines or "green guides" since 1998. More than $54m was spent last year on carbon offsets, the Times writes, and there are growing concerns about about the level of "green washing" in paid media (i.e advertising that claims to be green or environmental but really isn't). The Times article on the FTC workshops includes many companies using carbon off-sets and the ad above for Volkswagen's Forest. The ad says VW will offset the first year of carbon emission of every car they sold for four months last year. What do you think about that ad?

For once, I am not going to ask you to post your opinion in our comments, tell the FTC what you think instead. Personally, I like Norway's system for regulating green ads but I doubt we would ever do that in the U.S.

[Source: New York Times]

The Carbon Catalog website opened up back in September and since then has gotten about twice as informative, doubling the amount of data available on carbon offset organizations. The idea behind the Catalog is to provide a non-partisan, one-stop, ad-free resource for information on carbon offset projects and providers. As founder Gideon Greenspan recently wrote in to AutoblogGreen, "With little in the way of regulation and big discrepancies in pricing, carbon offsetting has met with a shaky start. We are hoping to help change that."

The Carbon Catalog now lists over 60 carbon offset providers and almost 200 carbon reduction projects from around the world. A lot of automakers (VW, Land Rover, and car rental agencies, for example) use carbon offsets to increase their green effect, and it doesn't hurt to keep Carbon Catalog in your bookmarks to see how the offset programs the automakers use rank.

Carbon Catalog contributors recently started up their own blog and not too long ago Greenspan was interviewed on Treehugger.

[Source: Carbon Catalog / Gideon Greenspan]

One of many green insurance programs, ibuyeco has been offsetting drivers' CO₂ emissions since opening shop in June. The company just sent out an announcement that the results so far include the offsetting of 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide with the help of the CarbonNeutral Company. While this sounds like a lot, it's actually kind of a drop, really. After its first three months of operation, ibuyeco claimed they had offset 18,000 tons. Do the math, that's 18,000 tons in the first three months and then 7,000 in the following two.

Maybe this is why, instead of focusing only on the 25,000 tons number, ibuyeco's press release (after the jump) frames the amount as "the annual CO2 emissions of an entire town." ibuyeco says 25,000 tons of CO₂ is "the equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 4,464 UK households (based on 5.6 tonnes of CO2 per home). That is roughly the equivalent to the population of Ilfracombe, Devon." Well, there ya go.

Related:

• British supermodel launches eco-friendly car insurance

[Source: Ibuyeco]