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Lyft vows to make itself completely carbon neutral

It's promising 100 percent renewable energy, albeit through offsets.

Lyft is taking its environmental commitment to its logical conclusion. The ridesharing outfit has promised to achieve complete carbon neutrality, not just its rides, and will strive to use 100 percent renewable energy. It's buying those renewables directly when it can, but it'll buy renewable energy credits and carbon offsets when it has no choice but to use less than eco-friendly sources. Credits will come from energy projects that sit on the same regional electricity grids, such as wind farms in Colorado and Maine.

Yes, Lyft knows this isn't a true solution at the moment. Rather, it's something the firm can do "immediately" to help. Eventually, it wants to consume more direct renewable energy and minimize its own CO2 emissions.

There's certainly an amount of posturing here. Lyft has long come across as the (sometimes) kinder and gentler alternative to Uber, and going carbon neutral certainly helps burnish that image. Even so, it's hard to object. Lyft as a transportation service can easily have a sizeable environmental impact, and anything it can do to soften the blow is bound to be helpful.