Carbon Offset Sponsor for CERES

Kasey Krifka, The Climate Trust
September 15, 2015

The Climate Trust was pleased to serve as the Carbon Offset Sponsor for the 2015 Ceres Conference in San Francisco this May. This premier industry conference gathers more than 600 companies, investors, advocacy organizations and other leaders to discuss key sustainability topics and emerging trends, and collectively identify solutions for achieving a sustainable future.

As the Carbon Offset Sponsor, The Climate Trust provided credits from our Afognak Island Forest Conservation Project to offset conference-related emissions—travel, venue, energy use, accommodations—generated by attendees. Overall, 428 tons were retired on behalf of the CERES conference.

“We are honored to serve as a sponsoring organization for an event of such high-caliber as the annual CERES Conference,” said Sean Penrith, executive director for The Climate Trust. “As a long-time CERES coalition member, The Trust is excited for the opportunity to support an event that convenes key leaders for critical conversations in the climate change space.”

The major theme coming out of the Ceres Conference was that we must innovate, collaborate and accelerate solutions to tackle climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability threats to our environment and the global economy. From the plummeting price of oil, to the exponential growth of wind and solar energy, to the epic drought in California, the time is ripe for creative disruption.

The Afognak Island Forest Conservation Project is a 30 year project protecting over 8,000 acres of pristine habitat and preventing over 1 million tonnes of CO2 from being released to the atmosphere. The same generation of early American conservationists that saw the value in preserving Yosemite and Yellowstone, identified Afognak Island as an irreplaceable wilderness, leading to its establishment as a National Forest. The Afognak Forest Carbon Project represents a decade of concentrated efforts by dozens of dedicated individuals, who have worked to conserve a truly unique ecosystem in perpetuity. Environmental benefits abound, including the prevention of air pollution and land disruption from timber logging, as well as the preservation of natural forest habitat important for the survival of many species endemic to Alaska.

Living forests are an important part of the earth’s climate system—conserving soil and water, preventing floods, and providing natural beauty and inspiration. Growing trees soak up CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, roots, leaves, and forest soils, where the carbon stays sequestered for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Entities that invest in offsets help provide funding to projects that offer tremendous opportunities to reduce carbon emissions. The Climate Trust welcomes working other corporations and institutions to maximize environmental returns by funding high-quality projects in the forestry, biogas and agriculture sectors.