No Silver Bullet
There is no single “silver bullet” that can solve the climate crisis. Society must rely on a myriad of approaches — some simple and cost-free, like turning off lights when leaving a room or recycling properly, and others costly and complex, such as decarbonizing air travel and public transit.
Where you can, reduce your climate footprint directly. Where you cannot, use credible offsets. But remember: using low-cost offsets to cover high-impact emissions is just postponing the problem. Sooner or later, someone will need to offset those expensive greenhouse gases.
Our Approach
With that in mind, The Green Offsets Foundation of Canada offers a way to meaningfully offset air travel and other unavoidable emissions. Not with symbolic gestures like buying a tree or sending a solar camp stove, but by putting zero-emission buses on Canadian roads.
The Cost of Impact
The true cost of putting a zero-emission bus on the road works out to about $800 per tonne of CO₂e reduced. Here is the breakdown:
| Contribution | What It Supports | CO₂e Offset | Equivalent Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Bus | 1 Zero-Emission Bus | ~1,500 tonnes | $1,200,000 |
| Per Tonne | 1 tonne CO₂e | – | $800 |
| Half-Tonne | 0.5 tonne CO₂e | – | $400 |
| Quarter-Tonne | 0.25 tonne CO₂e | – | $200 |
(Illustrative numbers – updated calculations will be provided as projects advance.)
Leveraging Partnerships for Affordability
We aim to leverage private donations with other philanthropic donors — including corporate, government, and institutional partners — to make offsets affordable and impactful at about $300 per tonne of CO₂e.
This reflects the reality that multiple contributors come together to fund each bus, spreading cost and accelerating real-world deployment. If you offset your flight at:
- 100% → about $800 per tonne
- 50% → about $400 per tonne
- 10% → about $80 per tonne