• DTE Energy seeks opportunities to sequester carbon dioxide and capture methane escaping from landfills. Since 1995, DTE Energy has planted 20 million trees in Michigan alone and DTE Biomass landfill projects have captured the equivalent of nearly 20 million tons of CO₂.
  
  

• DTE Energy is a participating member of the UtiliTree Carbon Company. UtiliTree is a consortium of 41 utilities organized by the Edison Electric Institute to invest in a portfolio of forestry projects that manage GHG emissions, particularly CO₂. A $3.2 million investment in eight domestic and two international projects will capture over 3 million tons of CO₂ over the life of these projects.

• DTE is a founding member of PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC [1], a voluntary carbon sequestration initiative. PowerTree, which has 25 member companies, will invest $3.4 million for reforestation of over 3,800 acres of bottomland hardwood projects in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The projects will sequester approximately 1.7 million tons of CO₂ over the next 100-years.

• Detroit Edison has also made commitments and will have invested, by 2008, $5.5 million in other similar forest restoration projects in the lower Mississippi River valley (Louisiana and Mississippi). More than 7,000 acres will be planted to sequester 3 million tons of CO₂. Each project involves a partnership with a conservation group (The Conservation Fund, The Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Environmental Synergy, Inc. (ESI) has been contracted to provide the tree planting and initial (first 10 years) monitoring and quantification services. 

To view carbon sequestration and offsets programs of all BELC members, visit What's Being Done in the Business Community [2] section of this site.