Volkswagen in the US announced today that it has partnered with the not for profit organization Carbonfund to start a carbon emissions offset program covering the emissions of every car it sells in the States between September 1 this year through until January 2 next year.

Programs like the one offered at Carbonfund work by planting a number of trees for each car sold to neutralize the impact that each car has on the environment. Carbonfund will plant native trees in a wetland in Northern Louisiana. The total carbon reduction is estimated to be more than 372,000 tons of CO2 from planting over 250,000 native trees in the wetland.

Following Toyota's lead, most mainstream car manufacturers are jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon. Even Land Rover offers a similar program to its customers where they pay a small fee to help fund conservation projects like wind farms and tree planting.