American Carbon Registry Named the Most Widely Used Forest Carbon Standard in North America
ARLINGTON, VA, November 5, 2012 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is highlighted in the newly released 2012 State of the Forest Carbon Market report as the most widely used forest carbon standard in North America in 2011 as well as the second most widely used voluntary carbon market forest standard in the world.
The report, which aggregates historic data from 215 forest carbon projects around the globe, was published last Thursday by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, a world-leading provider of news, data and analytics on environmental markets and investments in conservation. Ranking of ten voluntary forest carbon standards was based on contracted forest offset purchase volume in 2011.
According to the report “voluntary action remained a dominant force behind forest carbon credit transactions in North America. Projects adhering to the ACR standard contracted the largest volume of forest carbon credits from any North American program…owing to their popularity among purely voluntary buyers based primarily in the U.S.” Corporate Social Responsibility buyers of the two million ACR forest offsets transacted in 2011 included Norfolk Southern, General Motors/ Chevrolet and The Walt Disney Company.
In 2011 Norfolk Southern launched Trees and Trains, a $5.6 million partnership with ACR member GreenTrees to restore 10,000 acres in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley by planting six million hardwoods & cottonwoods. All emissions reductions from the project, the largest reforestation project in North America, are measured, monitored, verified and registered on ACR.
“With the longest operational history of all the registries, ACR combines scientific rigor backed by Winrock International with marketplace realism. This combo is unmatched in the registry world,” explained Chandler Van Voorhis, GreenTrees co-founder and managing partner. “GreenTrees’ goal is to one day restore one million acres in America’s Amazon, the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. To do so requires working with all types of landowners — large and small. ACR’s Forestry Standard is the most responsive.”
“Our collaboration with GreenTrees will foster revitalization of the Mississippi Delta’s environmental health and generate economic benefits for a region long served by Norfolk Southern,” said Blair
Wimbush, vice president real estate and corporate sustainability officer. “Our company’s 180-year history tends to give us a long-term perspective, and this kind of sustainable, lasting initiative is exactly what we like to do.”
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) registered two projects on ACR in 2011. The first will restore 250 acres of the San Juan National Forest in Colorado destroyed by the 2003 Bear Creek Fire. Offsets generated by the project will be retired on behalf of Chevrolet. The second project will restore 900 acres in California’s Angeles National Forest, which was decimated by the 2009 Station Fire, for which offsets will be retired on behalf of The Walt Disney Company.
“We selected American Carbon Registry because of the organization’s extensive knowledge of terrestrial carbon sequestration, understanding of public lands issues, and focus on accountability,” said NFF president Bill Possiel. “We look forward to working with ACR on future forest carbon projects.”
“ACR is honored for this recognition as the leading forest carbon standard in North America. We would like to thank the companies who have pioneered the development of forest carbon projects under our standard as well as those purchasing the offsets as an investment in the environment and to demonstrate voluntary action to reduce emissions,” said John Kadyszewski, director of ACR. “Our ability to advance standards and methodologies that deliver projects with real environmental benefits begins with Winrock’s deep bench of in-house expertise in land use and forest carbon science, a direct result of our commitment to market integrity.”
ACR has registered forest carbon projects throughout the U.S., Brazil and Madagascar as well as a pipeline of high quality voluntary projects around the world.
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About American Carbon Registry
The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity. Founded in 1996, ACR has over fifteen years of experience in development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as operational experience in high quality carbon offset project registration, offset issuance, serialization and transparent on-line transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency that is the market standard today and continues to lead carbon market innovation.
About Winrock International
Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. For over 15 years, Winrock has been a global leader in designing and implementing science-based methods to measure, monitor and report GHG emissions reductions in the agriculture, land use and forestry sectors for clients including the United Nations, the World Bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Winrock is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.