Carbon Sequestration and Offsets Solutions

The following is a brief overview of carbon sequestration and offsets solutions undertaken by members of The Pew Center's Business Environmental Leadership Council (BELC).

For more information on each of these companies efforts to address climate change, please see the Businesses Leading The Way [1] section of this Web site.

ABB

• ABB built the world’s first commercial CO₂ capture facility at its Shady Point, Oklahoma coal-fired power plant. It captures 200 tons of CO₂ a day from the plant’s flue gas, which is purified, liquefied, and sold to the food products industry.
  
  
• In conjunction with Pacific International Center for High Technology Research [2] and the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority [3], and other research facilities in Japan, the United States and Norway, ABB is studying the possibility of storing CO₂ in the ocean floor.
  

Air Products

• Air Products is a technology developer and provider for the CO2 Capture Project [4] (CCP), which is an international effort by seven of the world’s leading energy companies. This project seeks to develop new technologies to reduce the cost of capturing CO₂ from combustion sources and safely storing it underground. It is a collaborative effort involving partnerships with governments, industry, NGO’s and other stakeholders.
  
  
• Under the CCP, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. has directly contributed to projects, including early development of sorption enhanced water gas shift process and advancing the feasibility study of retrofitting boilers and fired heaters with oxy-fuel burner systems.
  
  
• Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is also participating as a partner in the CANMET programs exploring means to increase efficiency in energy-intensive industries, develop more efficient hydrocarbon conversion processes, and reduce emissions, including CO₂, from fossil fuel combustion.

American Electric Power

• American Electric Power is participating in forest conservation and reforestation projects. By replanting degraded areas, or protecting land that would otherwise be logged, the company is helping to sequester millions of tons of carbon.
  
  
• AEP, under DOE’s Climate Challenge Tree Planting Project, has planted 21,914 acres with nearly 19 million mixed hardwood and conifer trees at a cost of approximately $5.7 million. Projected CO₂ sequestration is 4.7 million metric tons over the term of the project. In a separate initiative in Louisiana, AEP has planted 9,784 acres with nearly 3 million bottomland hardwood trees at a cost of $6.25 million. Projected carbon sequestration is over 4.4 million metric tons.
  
  
• AEP is a founding member of PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC [5], 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 project will sequester over 2 million tons of CO₂ over the 100-year project term.
  
  
• AEP’s Mountaineer Plant is the site for a $4.2 million carbon sequestration research project [6] funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of public and private sector participants. Scientists from Battelle Memorial Institute [7] lead this climate change mitigation research project, which will also involve researchers from several other partnering organizations and universities. This project is obtaining the data required to better understand the capability of deep saline aquifers for storage of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
  
  
• AEP is a member of a consortium that is proposing to enter into an agreement with the U.S. DOE on FutureGen. FutureGen [8] is a $1 billion project that may lead to the world’s first nearly emission-free hydrogen and electricity production plant from coal, while capturing and disposing of CO₂ in geologic formations.
  
  
• AEP 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.
  
  
• AEP is working with the MIT Energy Laboratory [9] as part of a consortium researching the environmental impacts, technological approaches, and economic issues associated with carbon sequestration. The MIT research focuses on efforts to better understand and reduce the cost of carbon separation and sequestration.

Alcoa

• Alcoa plants thousands of trees annually near their operations and service areas, sequestering thousands of tons of CO₂ every year.
  
  

• In 2003, Alcoa employees fulfilled a goal to plant one million trees around the world in ten years—and did so in half the time. A new company goal is for employees to plant 10 million trees by the year 2020.

Baxter

• Baxter is participating in forest conservation and reforestation projects.

BP

• BP is a member of the CO2 Capture Research Project [10] (CCP), an international effort by seven of the world’s leading energy companies. BP is learning from its CO₂ geologic storage facility in Algeria, where it will be storing around one million tons of CO₂ a year beginning in 2004.
  
  
• B P is working with the MIT Energy Laboratory [11] as part of a consortium researching the environmental impacts, technological approaches, and economic issues associated with carbon sequestration. The MIT research focuses on efforts to better understand and reduce the cost of carbon separation and sequestration.
  
  
• BP is contributing to the development of a Blue Chip Standard, as part of the Climate and Biodiversity Alliance, for demonstrating the contribution of forestry projects to the goal of atmospheric greenhouse gas stabilization. This standard will support the creation of carbon sequestration credits that are generally recognized and therefore tradable.
  
  
• BP’s Global Choice [12] program allows Australian business customers to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from their fuel consumption. Participation in the program is free for companies purchasing BP Ultimate or bp autogas and only 1-2 cents per liter to offset regular unleaded or diesel fuels. The offsets are independently audited and certified by the Australian Federal Government’s Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO). Since November 2001, over 6,500 customers have offset 626,095 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Cinergy

• Cinergy is funding the purchase of trees for a 300-acre reforestation project being managed by the Nature Conservancy in Indiana. The project will sequester approximately 75,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
  
  
• Cinergy Corp. has developed partnerships with various conservancy groups, such as The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, and the National Wild Turkey Federation, to plant trees to restore lowland wetlands and riparian zones along rivers and streams, and to reforest marginal agricultural lands.
  
  

• Cinergy is a partner in the Rio Bravo Carbon Sequestration Project to protect 65,000 acres of endangered rainforest in Belize. The project combines land acquisition and sustainable forestry and is expected to sequester approximately 2.4 million metric tons of carbon over 40 years. Cinergy, the Nature Conservancy, and the Belize Government entered into an agreement to transfer the carbon offsets from the project to Cinergy Corp. The agreement was reviewed and approved by the U.S. Initiative on Joint Implementation (USIJI).

• Cinergy 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 Energy

• 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 [13], 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 project will sequester over 2 million tons of CO₂ over the 100-year project term.

Entergy

• Entergy plants thousands of trees annually on their landholdings, sequestering thousands of tons of CO₂ every year.
  
  
• Entergy in partnership with Trust for Public Land and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is acquiring 1,600 acres of land adjacent to the Tensas River Wildlife Refuge, restoring bottom land hardwood habitat on marginal croplands and donating the improved land to USFWS who will manage the property. This will sequester 640,000 tons of CO₂ over the next 70 years.
  
  
• Entergy in partnership with the Conservation Fund, USFWS and Friends of the Red River, dedicated the Red River Wildlife Refuge in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and established a 600 acre sequestration site that will create 225,000 tons of CO₂ offset credits over the next 70 years.
  
  
• Entergy has leased 30,000 tons of CO₂ offset credits from the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association (PNDSA). Credits are generated by growers who have agreed to use direct seed agriculture methods for at least 10 years. Direct seed cultivation avoids soil losses from oxidation associated with traditional farming techniques and also reduces the growers’ fuel use and soil erosion.
  
  
• In December 2003, Entergy became the first U.S. utility to purchase carbon emissions credits from geological sequestration projects. These projects capture CO₂ vent gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and then place them into oil-bearing geologic formations for use in enhanced domestic oil recovery. Under this program, Entergy plans to purchase over 2,800,000 metric tons of CO2e emission reduction credits by the end of 2005.
  
  
• Entergy 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.

Exelon

• TreeVitalize
  
  
  • PECO and Exelon have committed $150,000 to TreeVitalize, an aggressive four-year, $8 million partnership to plant more than 20,000 shade trees and restore 1,000 acres of forested riparian buffers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Tree cover (percent of land covered by trees and shrubs) has been decreasing in the five-county Greater Philadelphia region due mainly to the combined impacts of suburban sprawl and urban decay. In response to a study highlighting the loss of tree cover, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources launched TreeVitalize.
    
    
  • Planting alone is not sufficient to address the loss of tree cover. Both existing and new trees need better care. TreeVitalize will work with municipalities to identify tools to promote improved tree care. TreeVitalize will also collaborate with community groups to nurture volunteers by providing training for 2,000 citizens in proper tree care techniques.
    
    
  • For more info, visit the TreeVitalize website at http://www.treevitalize.net/ [14].
    
    
• Working in partnership to restore prairie grass
  
  
  • Exelon has restored more than 110 acres of natural prairie habitat on buffer lands and rights of way in Illinois since the initiative’s beginning in 1994. This effort is helping to sequester CO2, restore wildlife habitat, prevent runoff and improve water quality.
    
    
  • In 2004, restoration work continued on several significant Illinois projects. We partnered with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County to manage transmission rights of way in conjunction with a larger restoration project. An ecosystem lease was signed for the county to manage our property, which was a first for Exelon. And in Will County, we restored four acres along a transmission right of way adjacent to a larger restoration project. Another six acres of prairie were restored adjacent to a Forest Preserve District of Will County restoration project along the DuPage River.
    
    
  • Exelon is currently evaluating 10 to 15 additional acres of company rights of way and buffer lands for possible restoration.
    
    
• Capturing CO2 emissions through tree plantings
  
  
  • During 2004, Exelon maintained its participation in PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC, an initiative formed in 2003 by 25 U.S. power generators as part of a voluntary industry response to climate change. Member companies committed more than $3 million for reforestation in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The projects will remove from the atmosphere and store more than 2 million tons of CO2 over their projected 100-year lifetimes. Exelon will be entitled to claim approximately 3 percent of the sequestered CO2.
    
    
  • As of December 31, 2004, PowerTree Carbon Company had planted in excess of 2,000 acres of seedlings, using native tree species. Projects typically involve planting on a 12- by 12-foot spacing for an initial tree density Periodic monitoring using peer-reviewed methodologies measures above- and below-ground carbon stores.
    
    
  • The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley once contained nearly 22 million acres of bottomland hardwoods that have been reduced to approximately 4 million acres as a result of decades of flood control measures and conversion of forestlands to marginal farmland. Benefits from PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC projects beyond carbon sequestration include restoration of habitat for birds and other wildlife, reduction of fertilizer inputs to water bodies and increased soil stabilization. This initiative will help to advance the science behind carbon sequestration as a GHG mitigation option.
    
    
  • For more info, visit the PowerTree website at http://www.powertreecarboncompany.com/ [15].
    
    
• Managing trees along rights of way
  
  
  • Exelon maintains almost 56,000 miles of overhead electric lines in its distribution system and more than 6,000 miles of transmission rights of way. Our vegetation management program uses safe, reliable and cost-effective methods, including tree trimming, removal and herbicide application. These methods follow the standards set by the American National Standards Institute, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the International Society of Arboriculture.
    
    
  • PECO maintains its 12,150 miles of distribution lines on a five-year cycle, ComEd its 43,700 miles on a four-year cycle. Our transmission rights of way on state, local and federal lands – through prairies, wetlands, woods, agricultural land, suburban and urban areas and along highways and railroad corridors – are maintained on a five-year cycle, with annual comprehensive surveys of conditions.
    
    
  • ComEd is converting sections of transmission rights of way to native grasses and to date has converted 110 acres. Through the Municipal Tree Restoration Program, PECO encourages customers to plant the right tree in the right place to help minimize contact with wires. Both PECO and ComEd support municipalities by funding the removal and replacement of diseased, weakened or tall-growing trees under our overhead conductors. ComEd and PECO support National Arbor Day by working with school groups, municipalities and civic organizations to supply trees and planting training. ComEd is a five-year recipient of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Line USA Award.
    
    
  • For more info on tree plantings near power lines visit PECO's Compatible Trees for Planting Under or Near Power Lines [16].

Interface

• Interface’s Cool Carpet™ option allows customers around the world to purchase products with a net-zero climate impact. All of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with modular or broadloom carpet during its entire life cycle are offset through the acquisition of certified emission reduction credits. In the U.S., Canada and Asia-Pacific the credits carry the Climate Neutral Network’s [17] “Climate Cool” certification, verifying the accuracy of the life cycle emissions of carpet, and ensuring that the emission reduction credits for carpet sold in these regions - are sufficient to achieve a net zero impact on the earth's climate. Interface Europe is working with Climate Care [18] to fund energy reduction projects in South Africa and a major project to re-establish 10,000 hectares of rainforest in Kibale National Park, western Uganda.

• Interface has sponsored the planting of over 52,000 trees since 1997 to offset CO₂ emissions resulting from air travel by its associates through its Trees for Travel program.

• The Interface Cool Fuel™ [19] program enables the company to use corporate gas purchase rebates to offset the CO₂ emissions from business related auto travel in company vehicles.

• The Cool Co₂mmute™ program allows Interface associates to offset the CO₂ impact of their personal travel miles by paying for the planting of trees by American Forests to sequester CO₂. Interface splits the cost for the offsets with the associate.

Ontario Power Generation

• Ontario Power Generation plants thousands of trees annually near their operations and service areas, sequestering thousands of tons of CO₂ every year.
  
  
• Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and US Gen New England (US Gen) successfully completed a GHG emissions trade in April 2000. US Gen sold OPG 1 million metric tons of CO₂e reductions generated by capturing and destroying methane that would otherwise be emitted from the Johnston Landfill in Rhode Island from 1998 to 2000. OPG has committed to have all of its emissions reduction purchases verified by the Ontario, Canada Pilot Emissions Trading Project and report them to Canada’s Climate Change Voluntary Challenge and Registry Inc., where they are transferred and retired.
  
  
• Ontario Power Generation is part of the Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium, a non-profit Canadian corporation formed by ten Canadian Energy Companies that invests in emissions offsets. Among other offsets, the consortium has purchased 6 million metric tons of carbon emission reduction credits from Iowa farmers who use minimum-till and no-till farming practices, cropland retirement, buffer strips, afforestation, reforestation, improved timber management, power generation from biomass, and methane abatement from livestock waste to reduce emissions.
  
  
• OPG will plant 1.6 million trees by 2005 to promote carbon sequestration and conserve biodiversity. This planting effort will offset an estimated 900,000 metric tons of CO₂ over the lifetime of the trees and will add at least 800 hectares of new forest in southern Ontario.
  

PG&E Corporation

• Pacific Gas and Electric Company has submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for a new and innovative environmental program that will allow interested customers to contribute toward a cleaner California. This voluntary program would be available to most of PG&E’s residential and business customers.

  Through the Climate Protection Program, customers can choose to sign up and pay a small premium on their monthly utility bill which will fund independent environmental projects aimed at removing carbon dioxide from the air. To read more about this program, click here. [20] (pdf)
  

Rio Tinto

• Rio Tinto’s Luzenac America subsidiary purchased green tags from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to offset 100 percent of the GHG emissions associated with energy used at its Yellowstone Talc mine near Cameron, Montana.
  

Royal Dutch/Shell Group

• Royal Dutch/Shell is a member of the CO₂ capture project CO2 Capture Research Project [21], an international effort by seven of the world’s leading energy companies.

SC Johnson

• In April 2004, SC Johnson announced a contribution to Conservation International’s Conservation Carbon Program to help restore up to 45 acres (18 HA) of degraded forests in the Choco-Manabi corridor of Ecuador. This contribution will support the planting of more than 15 native tree species, and as this regenerated forest grows, it will absorb 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the next 30 years - which will offset the carbon emissions associated with the printing and distribution of the company’s annual Public Report. To learn more about this please visit SC Johnson’s website [22].
  
  

• SC Johnson, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy, has made a major commitment to help protect the Caatinga, an important bioregion in northeastern Brazil. The project allows for the protection of two sites totaling more than 18,000 acres in the state of Ceara and for the establishment of a local conservation organization to manage the reserves.
  

TransAlta

• TransAlta 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.
  
  
• TransAlta, in concert with a coalition of governments and industry, will research commercially viable technology to eliminate CO₂ from coal-burning power plants. The coalition plans to construct and operate a demonstration plant by 2007 to test the technology’s technical, environmental, and economic viability.
  
  
• TransAlta is part of the Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium [23], a non-profit Canadian corporation formed by ten Canadian Energy Companies that invests in emissions offsets. Among other offsets, the consortium has purchased 6 million metric tons of carbon emission reduction credits from Iowa farmers who use minimum-till and no-till farming practices, cropland retirement, buffer strips, afforestation, reforestation, improved timber management, power generation from biomass, and methane abatement from livestock waste to reduce emissions.

Weyerhaeuser

• At the close of 2004, Weyerhaeuser owned, licensed, or leased 37.9 million acres of forests worldwide. The company uses intensive silvicultural practices on the highly productive forests it owns to achieve the natural biological potential. In other areas it uses less intensive practices to emulate natural forest structure. In both cases, these sustainably managed forests sequester large pools of CO₂ inherent in the trees. Weyerhaeuser invests in afforestation ventures in South America to sustainably sequester additional tons of CO₂ and uses recycled fibers in products to extend the time that CO₂ removed from the atmosphere during the tree-growing stage is stored in products.
  
  
• In 2004 Weyerhaeuser improved its process for inventorying GHG emissions and the carbon stored in its forests and products. The company’s operations sequestered approximately 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents and emitted approximately 7 million tons from the use of fossil fuels and other activities. This effectively sequestered 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent or 0.5 metric tons of carbon equivalents per ton of production, an improvement of approximately 18% over 2003.

Wisconsin Energy Corporation

• Wisconsin Energy is a partner in the Rio Bravo Carbon Sequestration Project to protect 65,000 acres of endangered rainforest in Belize. The project combines land acquisition and sustainable forestry and is expected to sequester approximately 2.4 million metric tons of carbon over 40 years.
  
  
• Wisconsin 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.
  
  
• Wisconsin Energy funds EPRI research to assess the potential of existing options for capturing and sequestering CO₂ emissions; evaluate methods for CO₂ capture and sequestration at the point of electricity generation; and investigate enhanced terrestrial or oceanic processes that remove and store atmospheric CO₂.