Green Options » forestry

Rehabilitating Bio-Fuels Part 2: Interesting Second Generation Options

Steve Savage — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:54:38 +0000

My previous post retraced the precipitous decline in the reputation of biofuels that occurred between 2006 and today. In this post I’m going to talk about just a few of the activities going on for “second generation” biofuels (beyond corn, soy and palm oil, wheat…). One of the key features of these initiatives is that they reduce the competition with food crops - something which will only become a more significant issue in the future. I’ll be talking about several Universities and companies who have hung in there through the ups and downs of oil prices and the “trendiness” and “rejection” of biofuels. I think that these folks are going to make significant long-term contributions. If you have been soured in the past on the biofuel concept, please consider these alternatives.

Algae

There was a recent Wall Street Journal article about “5 Technologies that could change everything.” One they included was biofuels from Algae. People have been working on this for a long time including a very long government effort. The great thing about algae is that you can grow it in places and with water sources that are completely unsuitable for farming. Algae can be extremely productive. The problem is that the low capital investment systems are less productive and the highly productive, “bio-reactor” approach has a huge capital cost. The good news is that there are enough companies working away on this that sooner or later there might be a break-through. I won’t pretend to be an expert on how this is going, but I have a hunch it will eventually become significant.

Largest River Protection Area in Europe — in Croatia and Hungary

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:51:08 +0000

Croatia and Hungary signed an agreement yesterday to protect a major biodiversity area that crosses borders along three rivers. The agreement is being called a “Trans-Boundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve” and has resulted in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarding the two countries with a “Leaders for a Living Planet” award.

The reserve will preserve several endangered species, among other environmental jewels. There is also the possibility of the reserve expanding several times over into neighboring countries in the future.

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Nobel Laureate wants Native Trees for Kenya

Kay Sexton — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:29:27 +0000

Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt movement and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, criticised many forestry projects this week.

She was giving the keynote address at the second World Agroforestry Conference in Nairobi and her concern was that imported tree species often became invasive and when they did so, two things happened. Either the trees took over the ecosystem and then, when they were felled, left nothing behind, or they damaged elements of the environment that were essential to local people and wildlife. She used the example of eucalypts, which are often planted in African agroforestry programmes and said, ‘they [the trees] are over promoted for commercial reasons. These trees are good for beauty but consume a lot of water when they are planted along rivers, wetlands and water shed areas.’ Maathai fears that such plantings cause havoc in Kenya’s complex biodiversity.

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Timberland Leather Won’t Come from Amazonian Cattle

Bryan Nelson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:05:24 +0000

Timberland has announced a new policy agreement with Greenpeace to ensure that leather used in new boots and shoes won’t contribute to deforestation in the Amazon.

The policy will issue a moratorium on purchasing any cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Amazon Rainforest, and it will force all of its suppliers to do the same.

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Plant A Tree — Even Wall Street Agrees

Alan Smith — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:00:13 +0000

A new way to treat wood has trees back in the limelight: a hardwood’s reliability that even a rain forest mahogany tree can love.

The above picture is of the world’s first heavy traffic road bridge made from Accoya® wood. The bridge, located in Sneek in the Netherlands, is “the first wooden bridge in the world that can support the heaviest load class of 60 tons”. At this week’s Wall Street Green Trading Summit, a panel on forestation introduced a new way of thinking about how to deal with destruction of the rain forest.

>> More from the recent Wall Street Green Trading Summit: Opening, Carbon Markets, Weird Investments and Solar Panels for All.

I think we can all agree that planting trees is a good way to go environmentally green (they capture carbon like crazy), but lets take a look at that other green for a moment: the green of cash. Forestation can turn a profit quickly, given that it is one of the few industries in the United States that we know for sure will be cross marketable as a carbon offset industry.

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Boy Scouts of America Clearcut Forests, Leave No Trace

Bryan Nelson — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:56:00 +0000

“Leave No Trace” has always been an honored credo of the Boy Scouts of America. The trumpeted tenet is supposed to refer to ethical guidelines which preach having a minimal impact on land, nature and wildlife. But according to a recent investigation, the Boy Scouts have been caught logging over 34,000 acres of pristine forest over the last 20 years, including 60 clearcuts and 35 salvage harvests. They’ve literally left no trace– of the forests.

Furthermore, the survey showed that most of the acreage was logged to turn a backdoor profit, and there’s evidence of corruption. A number of Scout councils submitted inaccurate and misleading logging plans, and allegedly disregarded rules and regulations which were in place to protect wildlife and the watershed. Some of the deals even involve cozy relationships with private companies and state regulators.

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Could Forest Management Save the Planet?

Kay Sexton — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:23:37 +0000

There’s a claim being made by at least one wood pulp processing company that the Swedish Forestry Management system could not only supply the world’s need for wood, but also counteract rising CO2 levels.

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Macedonians Plant 6 Million Trees in One Day!

Jennifer Lance — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:26:51 +0000

On Wednesday, thousands of Macedonians planted six million trees to reforest their country. Buses took people, including 1000 soldiers, to planting sites. The tree planting project was organized by opera singer Boris Trajanov, “If Macedonia, a country of two million people, can plant six million trees, we can only imagine how many trees can be planted in other, bigger countries.”

Via: Reuters

Image: MacedonianBoy on Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Supply Chain Tracking Company Partners with Liberia to Prevent Illegal Logging

Amiel Blajchman — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:00:15 +0000

Helveta, specializes in supply chain tracking systems that give companies the ability to track any and every item in their supply chain. In forestry, this means that it can link barcodes and radio identifiers to individual trees and map them using GPS and Helveta’s proprietary software.

Using these tags, it allows timber producers to demonstrate that their wood and lumber comes from a legal source. According to Patrick Newton, President of Helveta, this gives an additional level of auditability and supply chain assurance to buyers and watchdog groups:

If it doesn’t have the tag or the audit trail attached to it, they will know it is probably illegal

And, according to an article in the Economist, that’s exactly what is happening in Liberia.

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Options for Calculating Your Carbon Offsets

Maria Surma Manka — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:30:00 +0000

As I mentioned in Introduction to Carbon Credits, there are lots of different ways to offset your carbon dioxide emissions and even get paid for them. Although more and more companies are offsetting their emissions and committing to carbon dioxide reductions by joining the Chicago Climate Exchange or the California Climate Action Registry, I’m going to focus on some tools that individuals can use to offset their carbon dioxide emissions.

A quick refresher: A “carbon offset” or “carbon credit” is an emission reduction from a project that results in less carbon dioxide or other global warming pollution in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur. Offsets are normally measured in tons, and are bought and sold through brokers and traders.

There is a lot of discussion surrounding carbon credits and a lot of different opinions. For example, some do not count wind power as a carbon offset for reasons such as wind is intermittent or because many wind projects would happen regardless of the carbon credits purhcased, so the projects are not additional renewable power. This latter concept is called "additionality." But some organizations do count wind power as an offset, such as a nonprofit foundation called the Gold Standard. This organization gives something like an official stamp of approval for carbon credits and is used by 42 nongovernmental organizations around the world and a number of governments.

There is also debate on whether tree planting and forestry projects are true carbon offsets. The David Suzuki Foundation of Canada specifically excludes tree planting from their definition of a carbon offset, arguing that trees are not permanent solutions to carbon dioxide pollution and do not address the fundamental problem of our over-reliance on fossil fuels. But the United Nation Development Programme does count forestry projects as a carbon offset.

You'll have to decide for yourself whether trees or wind power makes sense as carbon offsets. But once you have that figured out, take a look at some of the sites that I checked out for offsetting a year's worth of carbon emissions. I searched several sites that include a variety of projects – wind power and forestry included. Some sites that I found informational and easy to navigate include:

An Inconvenient Truth’s “Calculate your impact” calculator that determines your annual CO2 emissions and then takes you to Native Energy, which allows you to choose the type of project you want to use to offset your carbon emissions.
Carbon Counter makes it very easy to calculate your carbon emissions and then buy offsets.

Can’t offset a whole year? How about offsetting your cross country road trip instead or your flight overseas. Here are some handy sites I found:

The Carbon Neutral Company is a UK site where you can calculate your emissions from driving (either a road trip or your yearly mileage) or a flight. It’s pretty easy to use, but the lengths of its flights are vague (i.e. “short haul” vs “long haul” flights).
California-based Terra Pass has been in the news since it partnered with the online travel agency Expedia to offer carbon neutral flights. Terra Pass had a very easy-to-use website where you can buy a package that offsets your yearly road miles or a domestic flight. For example, it took me about 3 minutes to enter my recent flight to Salt Lake City and find out that I qualify for the “puddle jumper” offset package that costs $9.95.
Climat Mundi is another UK site that's handy for calculating more accurately your flight or drive. For example, you choose from which city/country to which city/country you are traveling (including international flights), or how many miles you are driving or flying on a particular trip. I thought this site was really easy to use, but you do pay in Euros.

I hope at least one of these sites gets you on track to becoming carbon neutral, if you choose to do so. I’m exploring becoming carbon neutral myself and am learning a lot right along with you, dear readers, so comments or suggestions on offsets and your experiences with them are quite welcome.

Coming up soon: Are carbon credits the silver bullet? How can Green Options help?

Illustration: Ilana Kohn

Carbon Neutral Company
David Suzuki Foundation
The Gold Standard
United Nations Development Programme