Carbon Offsets

What is carbon sequestration?

Understanding carbon offsets first requires an understanding of carbon sequestration. As many may remember from middle and high school science classes, trees and other plants obtain nutrients through the process of photosynthesis. This means that plants take in carbon dioxide, along with water and sunlight, to synthesize food. The trees hold this carbon dioxide, and therefore, keep it out of the atmosphere. This is beneficial since carbon dioxide is a very prevalent greenhouse gas* that largely is responsible for climate change.

*A greenhouse gas blocks outgoing solar radiation in the form of photons of light that are leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. The sun is constantly kicking out light photons of various wavelengths. Some of these photons reach the Earth’s surface, then are converted to infrared photons of light and directed back out of the Earth’s atmosphere. However, if these photons encounter a greenhouse gas, they will trap the outgoing solar radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere and release heat in the process (i.e., the greenhouse effect).

How is TRGT involved in the carbon offset market?

TRGT has put many of our properties into the carbon offset market. Therefore, TRGT received monetary benefits from California industries to put our forests under a contract. TRGT is now committed to monitoring and inventorying the trees to ensure that the stocks remain at the baseline level from the time of sale for the next 100 years. TRGT pursued this project because we wanted to support a process that ultimately reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The project allows us to increase our general operating fund which is being used to further support our stewardship operations and future land protection.

What are Carbon Offsets?

The term carbon offsets pertain to an environmental policy strategy that seeks to reduce overall carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions. More specifically, carbon offsets are reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide (a substantial greenhouse gas) that are intentionally made in order to compensate for emissions of carbon elsewhere. In our case, these carbon offsets are done in the form of putting a legally binding contract on a forested area that requires the trees to be left intact and allowed to grow (i.e., as the trees persists and grow, they will continue to uptake carbon dioxide through photosynthesis). The carbon is then bound up in the trees rather than reaching the atmosphere where it acts as a greenhouse gas.

In 2006, the State of California passed the Global Warming Solutions Act and tasked the California Air Resources Board with developing a carbon offset market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the State to 1990 levels over a fifteen-year implementation period. If a Landowners are able to enter their forests into a binding contract that prohibits

Have any questions or want to learn more?

To learn more, check out this link from howstuffworks.com.

And feel free to email us at info@trgt.org with any questions about TRGT’s involvement in the carbon offset market.