For the first time, commuters are able to make their travel “net-zero carbon”. Iomob, participants in this year’s SHIFTx event, have entered into a partnership with CarbonClick in order to enable carbon offsetting for multimodal travel. This move takes Iomob one step closer to the ambitious goal of enabling net-zero carbon journeys through its Mobility on Demand open platform.

While focusing on net-zero carbon journeys, this exciting collaboration will also increase awareness of the environmental cost of mobility, providing users with the education and tools to make informed decisions about their travel. What makes this development truly innovative is the fact that users can choose to purchase carbon offsets to fund certified projects within the community or region where their journey was made.

Until recently, travellers were only given an option to offset their air travel, but not when using ground transportation. Iomob is changing this by offering a zero-carbon mobility-on-demand platform that can be fully and seamlessly integrated into new or existing mobile applications and websites created by public transport authorities and private companies. The platform works by calculating the CO2 emissions from specific vehicle types rather than using an average value. This level of precision gives users a better understanding of their carbon impact as well as any potential offsets they may choose.

In a move to incentivize consumers to choose wisely, Iomob and CarbonClick will enable location-based carbon offsets. In this way, consumers fund certified carbon offset projects based in the region where the user is engaging with mobility services. When possible, these will be localized even further, but, at a minimum, users will only buy certified offsets from their country. Through the CarbonClick partnership, Iomob will also be able to provide users with a “track and trace” receipt that details how their “carbon dollar” is spent.

The partnership between Iomob and CarbonClick has the ultimate goal of encouraging users to make greener choices and opt for lower or zero carbon modes of transport as this would translate to lower offset costs. It is estimated that most users opting for the greener mobility will not pay more than 1% of their total trip cost in carbon offsets. These incentives encourage the use of lower-emitting modes of travel such as rail, public transport and micromobility.

The new functionality of the platform creates a significant opportunity, not only for consumers choosing to offset their carbon footprint, but also for companies and public authorities in promoting more responsible and environmentally friendly mobility options. Corporations committed to lowering their carbon footprint can get one step closer to their targets by offsetting the net carbon impact of their employees’ travel. This can include work-related travel, daily commutes, or both. The resulting impact data can then be tracked on a dashboard or used to report to the relevant authorities or for their own voluntary carbon disclosure reporting.

“Iomob is now one step closer to fulfilling our ambitions of creating an open platform for seamless on-demand mobility that accelerates the transition towards a zero-carbon transportation system. This is something I envisioned and discussed in my first book, ‘Climate Capitalism’ published in 2011”, says Iomob’s CEO, Boyd Cohen. “We have scoured the world for partners who can deliver a best-in-class solution for location-based carbon offsets. We are pleased to partner with the emerging leader in this field, CarbonClick.”

CarbonClick CEO Dave Rouse says: “Multimodal travel is no doubt the future of smart cities and climate-friendly mobility, and we’re thrilled that our partnership with Iomob will enable commuters to make their journeys carbon neutral. An important aspect for us is that users can purchase carbon offsets that fund certified projects within their own community or region. Our platform is 100% transparent and any offset purchased can be traced right back to the source.”

Photo – by Alex Iby / Unsplash