Carbon offsetting was all the rage a few years back - at least in terms of PR and new initiatives - until the economy started biting and travel companies and consumers focused elsewhere.
Not so for multi-modal travel search startup Rome2Rio [TLabs Showcase - Rome2Rio], which has this week introduced a carbon scheme with Offset Options that shows the environmental options for a trip as well tries to persuade travellers to purchase offsets.
When a user carries out a search the amount of CO2 created is displayed. This works for each leg of the journey and includes each mode of transport such as road, rail and air.
If a user switches a mode of transport, or additional elements are added (stopovers, etc), then the CO2 is recalculated.
Once the user clicks on the emissions total they will be given a pop up listing the total amount for the journey and a showcase of projects the user can choose to donate to, using a calculation of the amount of carbon to be offset and the value of the schemes.
The challenge for the scheme will be getting the user to head back to the site to make the offset purchase, as Rome2Rio is a metasearch engine and sends visitors off to the supplier or OTA site to secure the booking.
A string of travel companies have introduced carbon offsetting schemes over the years, including Expedia and Lastminute.com in Europe.
Fellow multi-modal travel search service Zoombu (before it disappeared into the depths of Skyscanner) started out with a environmental option, displaying the cheapest, quickest and greenest results for point-to-point trips.