http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting Comments on 'have 10 trees planted to offset my total carbon dioxide emissions for 2005' en-gb team@pledgebank.com hourly 2 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_704683 I'm trying to find an offsetting scheme that will offset carbon emissions within 1 year. So, if I took a flight this year, all the CO2 would be re-absorbed within 1 year, rather than waiting 30 years for a tree to mature. The one at www.carbonfreelife.com doesn't appear to say how ling it takes. The one at <a href="www.carbonneutral.com">The Carbon Neutral Company</a> say it takes until the trees mature. I'm not aware of a scheme that exists to absorb the CO2 in one year, but if anyone does know I'd like to hear of it. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_532351 Does anyone know of any scientific, non-biased websites that contain facts and information on carbon sequestration? http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_531034 In reference to the Carbonfreelife site - there are contact details throughout the site,a telephone number 01727 890000 is available as well as email. To clarify the questions above - Carbonfreelife spend 100% of the turnover on site maintenance and acquisition of future carbonfreelife sites. The title deeds for the acre of woodland are transferred into the clients name and the land then owned by that individual or corporation. All of the sites are situated next to existing self sustaining woodlands and the appropriate tree types for the soil, climate and area are planted. Definately worth considering as a valid voluntary offsetting scheme. www.carbonfreelife.com http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_528206 To Mike: The Carbonfreelife site to which I referred (above) provides no answers to any of the (pertinent) questions you say should be asked. I am sure that some commercial activity is well intentioned and well managed, but there have also been scams - unsuitable plantations on cheap land bought in third world countries etc. One more general point: it's not enough just to plant - long-term maintenance and protection of the land is vital. Charities like Trees for Life can provide the necessary guarantees. Companies may be ephemeral and are unlikely to be able to provide assurance that the land will not be sold and deforested at a later date. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_525040 Totally agree Mike, But then I would because I run one of those 'dodgy and dubious' commercial sites! What is important is whether the offset is valid not whether the people providing it are working for a charity or a company. Climate Care are are a multinational 'charity', The Carbon Neutral Co. are not. What's the difference Simon? http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_522046 It's a shame that Simon feels that commercial offsetting organisations are 'dodgy and dubious' while charities are good. This is much too simplistic. There are plenty of high salaries and overheads found in charities and there are some well-run, low overhead offset companies. One model is not intrinsically better than the other - it depends on the organisation. The key is to ask the right questions of any offset organisation, i.e. what percentage of turnover is spent directly on projects, how is additionality achieved, what accreditation do they have, is tree planting of a type appropriate to the location, is it carried out on land in the ownership of the offset organisation? etc, etc. We had hoped that the proposed government standard would help with this but it doesn't. It appears to be designed exclusively to help prop up the compliance market by pushing voluntary offsetters into buying such offsets. Regards, Mike Rigby http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_519651 Reply to Len: Different trees of course absorb CO2 at different rates over different periods of time. I have not seen any figures comparing tree species although these may exist. My understanding is that seasonality is not really a factor as the processes involved are medium rather than short-term. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_519629 Re Carbonfreelife The Carbonfreelife site provides no contact details other than an email. As ever I recommend donating to reputable chariries and not to dodgy commercial sites (see my previous comment above). http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_508586 Carbonfreelife are a relatively new company of dedicated professionals enabling individuals and businesses alike the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint.Take a look at the website www.carbonfreelife.com and see how you can make a difference. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_477264 Quick question I suppose, what are the best trees to plant ? As if I remember my school Science lessons correctly, the leaves of the trees play a major role, then what happens in winter ? especially as it is in winter that CO2 emmissions peak with additional heating requirements etc ? Thanks http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_422164 As ever I recommend using charities NOT dubious commercial sites - many of which have been advertized here! I have discussed carbon-offset planting with the Woodland Trust in the past, and while i believe they do plant new trees after receiving donations, they are a very conservative, government-oriented organization. They have been somewhat disinterested in this project, preferring celebrity-led mass media events etc. focussing on saving ancient woods etc. I have recommended Trees for Life http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/ as the best partners for this pledge. They are a small, more dynamic, more ecologically-minded charity. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_414828 I don't think the woodland trust are planting any new trees as a result of the dedications - aren't they just dedicating existing trees that are already planted? To actually plant new trees to offset CO2 I would expect http://www.carbonfootprint.com/ or http://www.grownupgreen.org.uk/ might be better places to visit. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_336278 I think tree planting in the UK is a great idea - more habitat for example -and I think urban areas and streets should have loads more trees. At the very least on a hot day (and there will be more of them as climate change kicks in) we might all be grateful for some shade. But where I think the carbon numbers are important is if people think they are solving the problem by planting a tree and so can carry on "as usual". If I take a flight and emit 1 tonne, how many years would it take one tree to absorb that one tonne? Presumably much more than one year and in the meantime most of my tonne of carbon emitted is still in the air and contributing to the problem. I suppose I could plant many more trees in a year, but space would become problematic. We need some pretty drastic action in other areas (the way we generate electricity being just one example) to tackle climate change - and it's getting very urgent. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_314887 Hi there, I think what you are doing is a great idea, and I'm sure you can do without the criticism of some 'environmentally aware' citizens! Anyway, regardless of the whole anthropogenic climate change debate and the offsetting thing- I am interested in setting up a similar initiative. I am a teacher in a British school in Thailand, and we are planning on planting a tree to represent each pillar of the 'Round Sqaure' program. IDEALS (Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership and Service). I was just wondering if you know of any charities offhand that could help plant the trees for us over here, as all the ones you have mentioned have been UK or US charities. We plan on raising the money by recycling our used paper (a mountain of which gets wasted everyday in any school) and making cards out of the recycled paper and selling them to the student body. Do you know which species would be the best to plant in this tropical climate? We were thinking about a different species per pillar but their growth rates would be completely different! Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks very much and keep up the good work, we need more people like you in this world http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_285332 Joseph, its good to hear some really positive comment about offset treeplanting. It has been coming in for a lot of negative copy in the media of late. One of the main criticisms of planting trees to withdraw carbon from the atmosphere is the 'temporary' nature of the store. At Treeflights.com we have tried to address this in our long term management plan for the forest we plant. We've come up with the following: Grow trees to maturity, process the timber into large rectilinear blocks, preserve and then bury in the sea or in the peat bog on which they are growing. Under these anaerobic conditions the decomposition of the wood and the resulting flowback of CO2 to the atmosphere will be very much reduced. Think of how well preserved the timbers of those viking long boats are. Then we plan to start the whole process over again. Grow another forest on the same site....etc, etc. We call this a "Sequestration Farm". Keep planting. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_280743 I want to congratulate Simon on his pledge.The idea is valid as woodlands store more carbon per unit area than other habitats e.g. grassland and therefore net effect is that carbon is removed from the atmosphere (as long as the forest exists and able to regenerate itself). I wanted to compare his numbers to mine. I planted a 12 Hectare plantation on my property. Using a value of 17kg/m2 (http://www.ilea.org/birdsey/carbon.html), at most 2000 additional tons of organic carbon will be stored by mature forest (in say 40 years time) consisting of about 3000 trees. That's an average of 50tC/year for 3000 trees. Average family emits 10tC/yr, so at very least 600 mature trees, planted now, are needed to offset emissions over a 40 year period for an average family. That' s consistent with simon's numbers (assuming he plants at least 10 trees every year from now on). Good news. The bad news is that we tried to offset everyone's C this way, we would run out of land. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_178883 Well done Simon and everyone. This is a great pledge and we want to encourage a lot more like it. We are also compiling a large amount of information, data and code which we will distribute for free to anyone who wants it for non-commercial use. The first tentative steps towards this are here http://www.global-cool.com/en/act/diy/ If you want to make a similar pledge, please consider using the version of Pledgebank we have up there as it's all focussed on this kind of issue (and all built by the same great team at Pledgebank)! Please also check out the EROs section as being more efficient needs to be your first step and offsetting should only used for your unavoidable emissions. If you are looking for information and/or want to help or have ideas of other initiatives, please do let me know using the email address on that site. Warm regards, Gavin http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_112590 I've just read all the way done this fantastic and fascinating series of comments.Just to add my ha'pennyworth. All you treelovers out there please visit us at treeflights.com and give us any feedback about our service. We plant trees for airline passengers who are concerned about the environment. One tree for each flight. We call this "making it a Treeflight". Thanks, Ru Hartwell. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_23494 As a student paying for university, I planted about 987,500 trees over a period of 12 summers. This took place in 6 of Canada's 10 provinces. I know of many individuals that have planted more. Of course, this was largely monoculture and destined for harvesting in about 40-60 years. I would like to think that in the meantime, however, there will be some significant benefit. Ultimately, life systems are supported by green space. http://www.pledgebank.com/treeplanting#comment_9585 PROBLEMS REALIZING THE PLEDGE Unfortunately, only one third of those who made this pledge have apparently kept it, so I have decided not to run this kind of campaign again, at least not here. One of the problems with the Pledge Bank is that it keeps the identity of signatories secret and allows anonymity. This makes it difficult to organize the implementation of the pledge. If anyone knows a good alternative to the Pledge Bank for running environmental campaigns, I would be delighted if you could let me know. Thanks to all of you who took part and _did_ honour their commitment! Best wishes, Simon