GreenCard Visa offers retail therapy for global warming guilt.

U.S. credit-card holders could soon bank carbon offsets instead of frequent flyer miles each time they make a purchase.

The GreenCard Visa, a product of Dutch investment firm Tendris Holding, offsets the amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with each purchase — at no additional cost to the consumer. The GreenCard, made from corn-based plastic, calculates the amount of trees that need to be planted to offset customers’ purchases. Cardholders can view their monthly carbon costs when they pay their bill online.

“With these low barriers, it suffices to say that GreenCard may appeal to more than the conventional environmentalist,” says Warner Philips, a principal at Tendris USA.

With a $75 start-up fee and no annual fees, GreenCard remains competitive by charging conventional transaction and interest fees. Such fees resulted in record profits of $30 billion in 2006 for the U.S. credit card industry as a whole, according to media reports.

Launched in 2004 in the Netherlands, the GreenCard outperformed other rebate-based credit cards, according to Philips. Tendris Holding, by partnering with Dutch Rabo Bank, expects to have nearly 2.5 million GreenCard holders within three years.

“We’ve seen various benchmarks, and GreenCard has outperformed them with limited marketing budget,” Philips says.