A Growth Market:
The Power of Forestry to Combat Carbon Emissions Is Going Mainstream
By Elizabeth Lenhard
Summer 2020
Summer 2020
Forest landowners have always known that their trees do more than simply absorb carbon dioxide and emit clean oxygen. They also store away climate-warming carbon—and a lot of it.
The term for this is carbon sequestration, and while it’s certainly been a noted benefit of forest ownership, it probably hasn’t had much in fluence on owners’ land management values. But that may be changing. These days, carbon sequestration is reaping rewards—both cultural and financial—like never before.
“For a long time, policy makers were all about curbing emissions [to address climate change],” says Dave Tenny, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners. “But in recent years, they’re realizing that we can’t get there through emission reductions alone. We have to have natural climate solutions. There’s new interest in what the land can provide.”
Many argue that the best the land provides when it comes to carbon sequestration is trees. Andres Villegas, president of the Georgia Forestry Association, puts it in tangible terms. “You can take a tree and turn it into lumber,” he explains. “If it goes into a commercial building, that carbon will sit there an average of 200 years. In a residential building, it’ll be there an average 80 years. Meanwhile, on the back end, you’re planting more trees on that same acreage, and they’re capturing more carbon and also putting it into the soil.”A number of entities are seeing this potential in privately-owned forests and they’re investing.
Corporations are buying carbon credits from forest landowners, often in transactions aided and certified by conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodlands program.
The program, which is already helping landowners with property assessments, management plans and certification in Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York, will launch in Georgia in 2021.
Some corporations (including some based in Atlanta) have been involving themselves more directly in tree farming to mitigate their own carbon emissions:
The term for this is carbon sequestration, and while it’s certainly been a noted benefit of forest ownership, it probably hasn’t had much in fluence on owners’ land management values. But that may be changing. These days, carbon sequestration is reaping rewards—both cultural and financial—like never before.
“For a long time, policy makers were all about curbing emissions [to address climate change],” says Dave Tenny, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners. “But in recent years, they’re realizing that we can’t get there through emission reductions alone. We have to have natural climate solutions. There’s new interest in what the land can provide.”
Many argue that the best the land provides when it comes to carbon sequestration is trees. Andres Villegas, president of the Georgia Forestry Association, puts it in tangible terms. “You can take a tree and turn it into lumber,” he explains. “If it goes into a commercial building, that carbon will sit there an average of 200 years. In a residential building, it’ll be there an average 80 years. Meanwhile, on the back end, you’re planting more trees on that same acreage, and they’re capturing more carbon and also putting it into the soil.”A number of entities are seeing this potential in privately-owned forests and they’re investing.
Corporations are buying carbon credits from forest landowners, often in transactions aided and certified by conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodlands program.
The program, which is already helping landowners with property assessments, management plans and certification in Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York, will launch in Georgia in 2021.
Some corporations (including some based in Atlanta) have been involving themselves more directly in tree farming to mitigate their own carbon emissions:
- On its news site, Delta Air Lines cites “carbon removal opportunities through forestry” as part of its one- billion-dollar commitment to becoming carbon neutral.
- UPS reports that it’s offsetting its shipments’ emissions with reforestation support, among other efforts.
- Amazon recently announced a $7.3 million investment in the Family Forest Carbon Program as part of its plan to become net zero carbon by 2040.
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Construction Industry Turns to Mass Timber
The construction industry is beginning to go green by using the large, versatile wood panels known as mass timber in place of less sustainable materials. “Construction is not quick to adapt,” admits Casey Malmquist, founder and CEO of the cross-laminated timber (CLT) producer SmartLam North America. “And a lot of this is counterintuitive—building a skyscraper out of wood. But there’s been an increasing awareness of the need for sustainability, particularly on the carbon piece, so people are looking at it more realistically and enthusiastically. If you look at projections, by 2034, there will be a need for 50 or 60 plants of similar capacity to the two we have now.” Where developers are going, governments are following. The federal government included the Timber Innovation Act in the 2018 Farm Bill. The act grants support to mass timber construction. And in the Georgia legislature, House Bill 1015 expands the state’s carbon registry, allowing carbon credits to be tied to carbon-sequestering construction projects. (The bill has not yet passed the senate.) All this investment in forests comes from consumer demand, says Deron Davis, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “We’re looking to the products that we buy to be produced in a more sustainable way,” he says. And corporations who don’t raise the bar when it comes to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, Davis points out, are no longer going to be able to compete with those who do. “The number of forest acres and the amount of carbon offset by keeping those acres in management longer—all that is quantifiable,” he says. (Extending the growth period to maximize carbon sequestration is one goal of the Working Woodlands program.) “It’s quantifiable with money, which helps the landowner. But you can say the value is not only to climate and reducing emissions but also to the community or the state where you live and work. And that covers more than one of the ESG objectives.” |
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The Best Land Use ... Is to Have Trees on It’
Well-managed forestland, Villegas argues, is far superior to efforts like terrain-clearing solar farms when it comes to positive environmental impact.
“Without a doubt, the best land use, in terms of what it delivers to us as a society, is to have trees on it,” he says. “Atlanta and other major cities are our primary sources of carbon emissions,” he adds, citing research from Georgia Tech. “The fact that Georgia can point to our 22 million acres of forest offsetting all that transportation—that’s a big deal. Another data point is we’re planting over 200 million trees a year in Georgia. They are providing a critical service to all of us, generating the air that we breathe.”
This all results in investors—fueled by the cultural capital that comes with carbon mitigation—starting to pay forest landowners for their part in that service.
Well-managed forestland, Villegas argues, is far superior to efforts like terrain-clearing solar farms when it comes to positive environmental impact.
“Without a doubt, the best land use, in terms of what it delivers to us as a society, is to have trees on it,” he says. “Atlanta and other major cities are our primary sources of carbon emissions,” he adds, citing research from Georgia Tech. “The fact that Georgia can point to our 22 million acres of forest offsetting all that transportation—that’s a big deal. Another data point is we’re planting over 200 million trees a year in Georgia. They are providing a critical service to all of us, generating the air that we breathe.”
This all results in investors—fueled by the cultural capital that comes with carbon mitigation—starting to pay forest landowners for their part in that service.
Just Starting
“We’re a startup in a nascent industry,” Malmquist says of his CLT company, which he says only sources sustainably harvested wood. “But we’re seeing shifts in the past year or two. We’re experiencing exponential growth.”
Malmquist also notes that businesses like his—and forestry in general—may be illuminated, rather than back-burnered, by the global coronavirus pandemic. “We’ve all been able to slow down and think about our lives and impact and how we relate to the rest of this world,” he notes. “There’s an increasing awareness that we just cannot keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Villegas agrees—and says that increasing awareness always leads investors and consumers to the forest. “When people buy a forest product, they’re actually buying carbon,” he says. “It’s in your Amazon box. It’s in the two-by-fours in your house and in the paper in our printers. That’s a powerful message for consumers. When you choose paper and wood products, the carbon that’s in there came from the air, versus plastics and metals that came from the earth. Only one’s renewable and recyclable. We can grow trees forever.”
“We’re a startup in a nascent industry,” Malmquist says of his CLT company, which he says only sources sustainably harvested wood. “But we’re seeing shifts in the past year or two. We’re experiencing exponential growth.”
Malmquist also notes that businesses like his—and forestry in general—may be illuminated, rather than back-burnered, by the global coronavirus pandemic. “We’ve all been able to slow down and think about our lives and impact and how we relate to the rest of this world,” he notes. “There’s an increasing awareness that we just cannot keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Villegas agrees—and says that increasing awareness always leads investors and consumers to the forest. “When people buy a forest product, they’re actually buying carbon,” he says. “It’s in your Amazon box. It’s in the two-by-fours in your house and in the paper in our printers. That’s a powerful message for consumers. When you choose paper and wood products, the carbon that’s in there came from the air, versus plastics and metals that came from the earth. Only one’s renewable and recyclable. We can grow trees forever.”
Elizabeth Lenhard, a freelance features journalist, frequently writes about Southern food and culture. She lives and works in Decatur, Ga.
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Georgia Forestry Magazine is published by HL Strategy, an integrated marketing and communications firm focused on our nation's biggest challenges and opportunities. Learn more at hlstrategy.com
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