rome2rio adds carbon neutral travel with Offset Options partnership

Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

Monday, August 1st, 2011


rome2rio, a search engine headed by two ex-Microsoft engineers which lets you literally work out how to get from A to B (not unlike FromAtoB.com) via a Google Map with multi-modal travel options, has now added carbon neutral travel to its offering with a partnership with Offset Options.

This allows users to compare the carbon footprint of every travel option available, thus factoring in the impact on the planet as well as their wallet. They get a real-time calculation of their chosen route’s carbon footprint and a range ofcarbon offset project choices to pay for, and thus make their trip carbon neutral. And buy trees in the Amazon, or whatever these things do.

If airlines have been solved by Kayak, SkyScanner and the like, rome2rio searches flights, ferries, trains and driving routes to show you your transportation options for every leg of your trip.

As Zoombu, which was bought by SkyScanner, found, there is an appetite for working out plane versus trains routes – especially in Europe, where it makes perfect sense, with both budget airlines, trains and even good car hire/road routes to plan out. But as yet we’ve not seen any Zoombu integration into SkyScanner which makes me think they are missing a trick.