Reducing Carbon in Carbon County

Chevrolet is finding that one way to reduce carbon is to invest in Carbon – Carbon County, Penn., that is.

Chevy is supporting the Working Woodlands Program, a model forest conservation collaboration between The Nature Conservancy and Blue Source. Specifically, Chevy is invested in the sustainable management of 22,000 acres of Bethlehem Authorityforest across Carbon and Monroe counties, near Bethlehem, Penn., to improve forest ecosystem habitats, which will retire a projected 106,000 tons of carbon over four years.

“Working Woodlands is a model conservation program that puts the growing market for forest carbon to work as a means to promote the conservation of essential forest lands,” said Josh Parrish, Pennsylvania director of land conservation for The Nature Conservancy.”

It’s one of many innovative carbon-reduction projects Chevrolet is supporting to achieve its goal to prevent up to 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the earth’s atmosphere. To date, it has secured commitments for nearly 7 million metric tons.

Forests are important in the fight against climate change because they capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their trunks and roots, playing a significant role in reducing  greenhouse gases. The more sustainably a forest is managed, the less greenhouse gas that is released into the atmosphere.

Chevy’s investment in forest conservation also helps to ensure the area has a clean water supply. The forest is home to two watersheds that provide water to 115,000 residents of Bethlehem and its surrounding communities. The Nature Conservancy’s management will help preserve the watershed and decrease the chance of pesticides, fertilizers and animal wastes making their way into drinking water.

At the time of adoption, Bethlehem Authority was the largest private conservation project in the state’s history. It was also the first to enroll in the Working Woodlands program, which provides forest landowners in Pennsylvania an analysis of their property and access to forest certification and carbon markets, in exchange for a commitment to practice sustainable forestry.

Chevrolet is actively involved in those carbon markets. In fact, it was the largest corporate buyer of voluntary carbon reduction credits in the United States by volume for 2011 as tracked by Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, a nonprofit source of environmental news and data.