Lyft offsets carbon emissions, but still relies on gas

In an announcement not-so-subtly timed to Earth Day, Lyft proclaimed its ride service is now carbon neutral.

In the fight against climate change Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green explained this week that the San Francisco company was purchasing carbon offsets, making Lyft "one of the top voluntary purchasers of carbon offsets in the world."

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Instead of eliminating emissions from its vehicles, Lyft is participating in a program funding projects that reduce carbon emissions. Carbon Footprint, which works with businesses to manage their environmental impact, describes carbon offsetting as "a way to reduce the emissions that you can’t."

For Lyft this means huge multi-million dollar investments into "emission mitigation efforts," such as projects related to car making, renewable energy, forestry, and landfills -- all overseen by energy consulting firm 3Degrees.

Lyft anticipates in the first year of the pledge, it will offset more than a million metric tons of carbon -- which the company equates to hundreds of thousands of cars off the road. But cars on the road is the very problem. Ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber have been scrutinized for putting more cars on the road and unintentionally hurting the environment.

In the post, Lyft gets a bit heavy-handed, "Your decision to ride with Lyft will support the fight against climate change." Lyft seems determined to offset its own contributions to the problem, but not at the expense of truly changing a lucrative business model. The $11-plus-billion company has served 50 million rides, and with those rides comes pollution.

Airlines, trains, and other transportation services have over the years paraded their carbon offset programs without changing much about actual energy use and waste. Amtrak has a Carbonfund where you can pay into different offset efforts to mitigate various train travel distances, while many airlines run offset programs you can pay into.

Amtrak offers options for carbon offsets. Credit: Amtrak/carbonfund

Jerry Kroll, CEO and founder of Electra Meccanica, a Canadian electric vehicle maker, (they are the company behind the all-electric SOLO—a single-passenger vehicle) has a narrow view on carbon emissions.

"How can you feel good about yourself if you’re driving around in a huge gas-guzzling car?" he said in a call.

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The average car produces 19 pounds of carbon-dioxide per gallon of gas burned and the average commute is just about an hour roundtrip, so that's at least 4.6 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emitted per year, the EV company calculates.

"Get off the fossil fuel train," Kroll urged. He praised the hybrid Toyota Prius as "possibly one of the most important cars for climate change" for showing that electric works early in the transition from gas to battery power.

Another transportation company that doesn't need to concern itself with carbon offsets is ofo, the dockless bike-share now in 25 cities throughout the U.S.

The Beijing-based company is pledging to save 5 million pounds of CO2 this year with bike rides instead of car rides.

Chris Taylor, ofo's VP and head of North America, said in a call that riders use ofo for a healthier lifestyle, to get out of traffic and road congestions, and to cut down on pollution.

"On Earth Day and 365 days a year, we're doing our part to save the world, save the environment," he said.

Ofo supports other transportation companies fighting climate change with carbon offsets and other efforts, such as deploying electric vehicles, but with a bike-share, the environmental impact is much more direct, he says.

Similarly e-scooter company Bird hit 1 million rides this week after launching seven months ago. The motorized scooter-share noted that its scooter trips cut more than 445,000 pounds of carbon emissions -- a key point the company is trying to make for why it should be allowed to continue operating in cities.

Lyft's program (and others) is certainly a positive step for environmental awareness and protection, but it's not the same as eliminating the release of greenhouse gases in the first place. Lyft has pledged before to run its future all-electric self-driving cars on renewable energy and by 2025 provide 1 billion rides on those carbon-neutral vehicles. But until then Zimmer and Green admit to falling short of a complete solution.

"By committing significant financial resources to these offsets, we’re building into our business a strong incentive to pursue shared rides and the displacement of gasoline-powered vehicles. The more shared rides and clean vehicles on the platform, the fewer carbon offsets we will need to purchase," the co-founders wrote.

Lyft's going to need a lot of Priuses to offset its emissions.

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