Month: April 2023

The importance of family forest landowners

Forests cover more than 750 million acres in the U.S., about one-third of the country’s landmass. They represent the country’s largest terrestrial carbon sink, continuously taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in trees. Yet forests offer significantly greater potential to mitigate the country’s carbon impacts through carbon-smart forest management.

Enter family forest landowners — the families and individuals who own and manage nearly 40% of America’s forestlands. Forest landowners, whose tracts measure between 30 acres and 2,400 acres, care deeply about the health of their woods, the future of their land and the planet. They want to play an active role in protecting forests, but often struggle to realize the full potential of their land for carbon sequestration.

How the Family Forest Carbon Program can help

The Family Forest Carbon Program, developed by the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and The Nature Conservancy, with financial and technical support from International Paper, enables family forest owners to access climate finance from carbon markets — empowering them to help address climate change while earning income from their land.

In a recent American Forest Foundation blog, the AFF noted that voluntary carbon markets are emerging as one of the primary ways to finance climate action. In a new strategic direction for the Family Forest Carbon Program, the AFF will expand access to this market for family forest owners from all walks of life while producing high quality forest carbon credits.

“The sustainability of forests remains critically important to our business, our communities, and our planet,” said Sophie Beckham, IP’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Natural climate solutions are key to mitigating climate change. Programs such as this one are essential to advancing robust carbon accounting methodology and identifying incentives to engage family forest landowners.”

Growing the program to help families store more carbon

In 2022, IP’s support enabled the Family Forest Carbon Program to scale up in the Central Appalachian area of the U.S., while also expanding into other forest areas. The program has enrolled an additional 248 landowners representing 36,302 acres, bringing the total enrollment to 313 landowners and 46,088 acres.

Across the life of their contracts, those landowners will sequester and store an additional estimated 987,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide – a number which will be validated and verified by third-parties under the Verified Carbon Standard.

The program has expanded from the Central Appalachians to the Northeast (Vermont, New York and New Hampshire) and the Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan), and aims to enroll an additional 95,000 acres in 2023.

The program also is on track to launch activities in the U.S. Southeast this year, with practices related to afforestation of degraded fields and pasturelands, and potentially with practices aimed at the improved management of native pine species.

Learn more about the Family Forest Carbon Program.

About International Paper
International Paper (NYSE: IP) is a leading global supplier of renewable fiber-based products. We produce corrugated packaging products that protect and promote goods, and enable worldwide commerce, and pulp for diapers, tissue and other personal care products that promote health and wellness. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., we employ approximately 38,000 colleagues globally. We serve customers worldwide, with manufacturing operations in North America, Latin America, North Africa and Europe. Net sales for 2021 were $19.4 billion. Additional information can be found by visiting InternationalPaper.com.

Many businesses aren’t just talking about carbon credits – they’re investing millions of dollars in them. And with all that money being spent, many are raising questions about the integrity and transparency of the projects that are being funded.

Today, the average price for a carbon credit in Cool Effect’s portfolio of carbon projects is $14.36. Just two short years ago it was $7.60. As prices grow, the market continues to evolve, and other factors continue to emerge, it’s important to understand that the voluntary carbon market is unregulated and, as such, pricing is often confusing.

Cool Effect’s mission is to help individuals and businesses make informed investments about carbon credits and understand where their money is going. The price of a carbon credit can vary from project to project, making it difficult to understand exactly how your money is being used and where your money is going.

When investing in a carbon credit with Cool Effect, your money goes to support a variety of factors, including:

Project operations – The technology and workpower that goes into setting up a project, maintaining it, and monitoring its impact on CO2.Co-benefits – Besides carbon removal, many carbon-reduction projects also actively provide aid and development to local communities.Viability and Reinvestment – Allocating funds to ensure that projects can achieve sustainable growth, not just success in the short term.

Purchasing a carbon credit is like making any other big purchase: it’s important to ask the seller specific questions about where your money is going. Don’t stop with “what is your fee?” and instead specifically ask “how much money is going to the project?” You want to avoid proprietary trading, onward selling and hidden fees. If a seller isn’t committed to full transparency, be very wary before you purchase carbon credits from them.

In 2019, Cool Effect introduced The Seller’s Pledge, a legal commitment to pricing transparency that is made to any buyer of carbon credits from its platform as part of Cool Effect’s Carbon Done Correctly program. Cool Effect holds itself to the highest financial and operational standard—no mysterious costs or hidden charges. Over 90% of every donation goes directly to project partners. The only fee Cool Effect places on any donation is a 9.87% fee which is disclosed to both the buyer and the project developer.

“I often look to the stock market in the 1950s as an analogy for the Voluntary Carbon Market today. We didn’t know at the time who was going to be a blue chip company. We had to do the research, just like Cool Effect does today,” says Richard Lawrence. “Cool Effect is working to identify who is a blue chip and who is not. There’s both a research component to the quality of the credit and transparency in the business practices. I recommend that every buyer ask for legal transparency from the broker on the pricing of each credit they purchase. Ask to disclose the price being paid to the project. Look to eliminate hidden mark ups and proprietary trading. The voluntary carbon market alone won’t tell you how legitimate a project is — but with increased transparency, like you can see with The Seller’s Pledge, comes increased trust from purchasers.”

It is also important to realize that carbon credits are part of a market. Similar to equities in the stock market, the availability and prices of carbon credits change quickly. They are not static items like office supplies which can be purchased in bulk at uniform prices and be precisely budgeted ahead of time.

“Not all carbon credits are created equal and we feel that there’s no better way to ensure Carbon Done Correctly than through an unwavering commitment to transparency,” says Jodi Manning, VP, Director of Marketing & Partnerships for Cool Effect. “We want the buyer to know exactly what will be sent to the project, and we want the developer to know exactly what is being paid and what they will receive. We want every buyer to trust that their donation to these incredible projects is going to make a difference.”

Ultimately, you shouldn’t let the complexities of carbon pricing scare you off from investing in carbon credits. The support of high-quality carbon projects is one of the tools in the toolbox for collectively fighting our warming climate and achieving ambitious climate goals, and transparent mechanisms for carbon finance are already in place. At the end of the day, carbon credits are more than just financial tools. They’re one of the most efficient ways to channel funds into the developing world, and there are countless stories of carbon finance being transformative to a local community.

To learn more about Cool Effect or how to partner with the organization to develop a meaningful sustainability and carbon offset program, please visit cooleffect.org/for-business.

Highlighting its purpose to help clients, colleagues, and communities thrive, KeyCorp has released its 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report. The report includes updates on Key’s sustained progress against each of the company’s ESG priorities: climate stewardship; financial inclusion; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and, data privacy and security.

KeyCorp’s 2022 ESG report can be found here.

“I am proud of the notable progress and advancements we made in support of our ESG priorities in 2022,” said Chris Gorman, KeyCorp’s Chairman and CEO. “Responsible corporate citizenship is foundational to who we are, how we do business, and how we deliver value to all of our stakeholders: our clients, our teammates, our communities, and our shareholders.

KeyCorp’s 2022 report details progress on the company’s ESG priorities:

Climate Stewardship: Key is taking action on climate stewardship. This includes deploying $5 billion of new capital in 2022 to support a low carbon economy as well as making measurable progress against company emission reduction and carbon neutral operations pledges.

Financial Inclusion: In 2022, Key invested more than $6 billion to support low- and moderate-income neighbors and neighborhoods through: affordable housing projects; mortgages; small business lending; and, transformational philanthropy.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: KeyCorp made significant progress on its 10-year commitment to increase representation of people of color in senior leadership by 50%, increasing representation by 36% in the first 18 months of this commitment. Key was also recognized as one of the Best of the best for its Supplier Diversity Program and was named to DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity for the 13th time.

Data, Privacy, and Security: Keeping the personal and financial information of clients and teammates protected and secure is one of Key’s highest priorities. In 2022, Key strengthened data safeguards and controls from enhancing fraud detection capabilities to improving customer service in case management and dispute resolution.

“As we move forward, we’ll continue our focus on creating shared value. From investing in communities to reducing our own carbon footprint to deploying a workforce representative of the communities we serve – our business model and strategy lifts neighbors and neighborhoods by providing financial advice, expertise, and capabilities to the clients we serve,” said Eric Fiala, Head Of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations, KeyCorp.

About KeyBank 

KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $190 billion at December 31, 2022. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com. KeyBank Member FDIC.