Brighter Planet

How will I know that I’m making a difference?

You can track your rewards using our website, which will provide you with an up-to-date count of the offsets that will be purchased and retired on your behalf. You can also learn about conservation and what other people are doing to reduce their climate impacts.

We will also include details about the points you’ve earned and the carbon you’ve offset in your monthly cardholder statement. We also hope you choose paperless billing.

Visit our website frequently to check in on the projects that cardholders are funding and learn ways to get involved in climate change events and campaigns.

How much do I have to use my credit card to make an impact?

You will make an impact with every purchase you make. Of course, the more you use your card, the more of an impact you make in funding clean energy projects. You begin earning offsets with the first dollar in purchases that you make.

Your points are automatically redeemed monthly to purchase offsets on your behalf. In that way, they don’t sit unused — since we all use energy all the time, it makes sense to fund renewable energy projects throughout the year.

We know that shopping itself also has an environmental impact. But if you’re going to make purchases, at least using this card helps to offset that impact and moves us towards a cleaner energy future.

How does this credit card make a difference?

Even if you drive a hybrid car, use compact fluorescent lighting and take other conservation steps, you are still going to use some energy and therefore have a carbon footprint. That’s where Brighter Planet products come in — they allow you to take the next step and go beyond energy conservation.

Take the Brighter Planet Visa card, for example. It’s an exciting and convenient opportunity to do even more in the fight against climate change. Instead of earning points redeemable for gift certificates or travel like some other credit card programs, your points are invested on your behalf to help build renewable energy projects.

These renewable energy projects replace energy generated by fossil fuel burning energy sources and create carbon offsets, which are then retired — forever — on your behalf.

Members’ offsets will only come from high-quality projects that are reviewed by our Project Selection Committee and adhere to the our Carbon Offset Policy. Perhaps the most important quality of these projects that our committee ensures is that the projects meet “additionality” standards, as set forth by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Projects can only be called additional when they make a genuine contribution to a long-term climate solution and would not have been built were it not for the prospect of receiving proceeds from the sale of carbon offsets. “Business As Usual” improvements, in contrast, are non-additional and their corresponding pollution reduction will not be purchased by Brighter Planet. All projects are monitored to ensure the environmental benefits are being achieved.

Aside from the CO₂e reduction, many of the renewable energy projects in our portfolio have extra benefits for the environment. Farm methane abatement projects, for example, help to reduce nutrient runoff and pathogen levels in the local watershed. Wind and solar projects are zero-emissions projects, eliminating traditional pollutants like NOX (nitrogen oxides) and SOX (sulfur oxides) that contribute to smog and acid rain, respectively.