Climate Tech

Reimagining Our Cities

Rethinking Our Carbon Future

Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber

Mass Timber: The Future of the Workplace

Northlake Commons | A mass timber project feature

Meet Northlake Commons: the future of the workplace.

TL;DR The future of workplace is good for people and planet. This is an exciting project with huge sustainability + climate implications. This project uses an innovative, eco-friendly building material to lower the overall carbon footprint of the building. Yep, we mean wood.

A mass timber, multi-use commercial office building has found its home on the north shores of Lake Union. Situated on Dunn Lumber’s original lumber yard (established 1913 and still active today!), the design pays homage to the legacy of Seattle’s rich timber history, while looking to the future of wood innovations, workplace environments, and neighborhood revitalization.

By 2050, over 70% of us will live in cities. As our cities grow, so do our challenges: dependence on fossil fuels, a growing disconnect with nature, and not enough housing and infrastructure to meet the needs of a booming population.

Emissions and materials are undoubtedly some of the construction sector’s greatest challenges. According to the United Nations, the built environment accounts for 39% of gross annual carbon emissions worldwide, a figure comprising operational carbon, the ongoing carbon emissions from its day-to-day use, and embodied carbon — all the CO2 emitted in producing materials.

While we can’t deny the need for more housing and more spaces to live, work, and play in cities and urban centers, that’s a lot of carbon emissions and a lot of non-renewable resources pouring into new builds. We need fresh solutions that are scalable, durable, renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient, and promote well-being for people and planet.

Fortunately, we can have our construction cake and eat it too. (Weird metaphor but stay with us here.)

Using wood, we have the power to reimagine our cities one building at a time.

But why is wood key to building a greener future together?

Trees draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a process called photosynthesis. This process produces various carbon-based sugars necessary for tree functioning and to make wood for growth. Every part of a tree stores carbon, from the trunks, branches, leaves, and roots.

In one year, a mature live tree can absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is permanently stored in its fibers until the tree or wood experiences a physical event that releases it into the atmosphere, like fire or decomposition.

By weight, dried wood material is roughly 50% carbon.

Practicing sustainable forestry, (grow, harvest, replant, regrow ) means that the full cycle of forests and wood products store carbon and have the greatest potential to lessen climate change impacts and keep carbon locked away in forests and wood. From constructing tall buildings to enhancing materials at the microscopic scale, wood products of any size can have big, positive environmental impacts in the fight to limit climate change.

Mass Timber is an essential product in our forest climate-solution toolbox that is helping us build better buildings, faster, and more sustainably. Mass timber - combined with light-frame construction - can deliver on value, longevity, speed of construction and flexibility. Mass timber helps us build faster and more efficiently, keeps carbon locked away, and allows us to provide homes that are good for people and planet.

This new office building will incorporate heavy timber and mass timber both indoors and out, opening onto the Burke-Gilman trail and the water beyond. The structural system is comprised of CLT panels atop glulam columns and girders, with a steel Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame lateral system. This innovative mass timber structural system has a much lighter footprint than other structural alternatives; a Life Cycle Assessment of the embodied carbon in the timber has been calculated to understand the carbon impact and emissions implications as compared to more conventional construction types.

Cities have long been labs for this type of innovation. So, even as our urban challenges continue to mount and grow in complexity, we are entering one of the most compelling opportunities in a generation to reimagine the way society lives, works, and plays. In transitioning our built environment from one that emits carbon to one that stores it, we are answering the needs of society for housing and infrastructure, while also answering the needs of our planet to do it more sustainably.

The ability for a building to act as a climate solution is incredibly valuable. Mass timber locks in and stores carbon in a way traditional building materials don’t. As a society, we are increasingly focused on the carbon and sustainability story associated with the buildings we build. With the building industry currently responsible for an estimated 20% of global emissions, mass timber is a climate game changer.

The Mass Timber Effect estimates that if we were to double the number of mass timber buildings built every year, the building industry could store more carbon than it emits by 2034.

Partners on this project include TimberLab, Swinerton, Weber Thompson, Spear Street Capital, DCI Engineers, and the Hess Callahan Grey Group. The Mass Timber materials were sourced our friends Kalesnikoff. This project also received a $250,000 Wood Innovation Grant from the U.S. Forest Service.

It is no wonder our friends and partners on this project and a climate-engaged workforce are looking to Mass Timber as an economic, social, and environmental solution. An innovative landmark, Northlake Commons elevates the human experience in the workplace, curating an building that brings professional and personal engagement together into a built environment that represents the future of city, of forests, and of our planet.

Climate Tech

Reimagining Our Cities

Rethinking Our Carbon Future

Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber

Mass Timber + Affordable Housing

As our cities continue to grow, so do the challenges they face. Reimagine the way society lives, works, and plays by moving our cities from climate problems, to climate solutions.

Mass Timber + Affordable Housing

HEARTWOOD | A mass timber project feature

We recently explored the value of mass timber as a building solution with Jason McLin, director of real estate development finance for Community Roots Housing. The Heartwood project will bring workforce housing to central Seattle, filling a critical need for middle-income housing in the city. Equally critically, this project makes use of an innovative, eco-friendly building material (cross laminated timber or CLT), which lowers the overall carbon footprint of the structure. When completed, Heartwood is anticipated to be one of Washington’s tallest CLT buildings.

This is an exciting project with huge sustainability + climate implications.

By 2050, over 70% of us will live in cities. As our cities grow, so do our challenges: dependence on fossil fuels, non-recyclable waste, insufficient housing, and a growing disconnect with nature. Generating affordable housing is undoubtedly one of the construction sector’s greatest challenges. We need fresh solutions that are scalable, durable, energy-efficient, and promote well-being.

Fortunately, we have the power to reimagine our cities one building at a time.

It is no wonder organizations like Community Roots Housing (CRH) - an affordable housing non-profit, based in Seattle, WA - are looking to Mass Timber as an economic, social, and environmental solution.

The Mass Timber Effect estimates that if we were to double the number of mass timber buildings built every year, the building industry could store more carbon than it emits by 2034.

Partners on this film + project include Community Roots Housing, American Wood Council, TimberLab, Swinerton, and atelierjones llc. Materials sourced in part from Kalesnikoff + Freres. This project also received a $250,000 Wood Innovation Grant from the U.S. Forest Service to validate the feasibility of Type IV-C multifamily housing.

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Reimagining Our Cities

Rethinking Our Carbon Future

Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Innovation

Just add wood: a microscopic climate solution

To think big, we need to think small. Really small. Meet nanocellulose

Forests provide powerful climate solutions. As trees grow, they exchange oxygen for C02 and lock carbon away deep in their trunks, roots, and branches. But to fully understand the positive impact forests can have on our climate, we need to think smaller. Much smaller.

At a cellular level - one millionth the size of the head of a pin - are the microscopic building blocks of a tree. Cellulose is a basic building block of plant cells and is key to keeping plants and trees upright. (Think: those stringy bits in celery, but very, very small.) A single rod-like cellulose nanocrystal is the tiniest building block of wood. Each crystal is one hundred million times smaller than the head of a pin and can only be seen through a powerful scanning electron microscope. Nanocellulose – cellulose in its smallest microscopic form – has immense and untapped potential to create win-win solutions for people and planet.

We envision a unique and sustainable future with this tiny yet mighty material revolutionizing fabrication technology and reducing our dependance on fossil fuels and non-renewable materials. These tiny fibers are as strong as steel, but only one-fifth the weight. Adding this next-generation material to products ranging from concrete, fiberglass and automobile tires to plastics, packing foams and electronic components, researchers are imagining and producing unique solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in things we rely on every day, all while developing new ways to support renewable, circular bio-economies.

When incorporated into other materials, nanocellulose lends incredible strength, requires less emissions-intensive material, and drives innovations that help design waste out of an already-efficient sustainable forest management cycle.

Because of their structures, nanocellulose materials also have a high rate of biocompatibility - meaning they can easily be added to, or combined with, other materials. In other words, we can take the climate powers of trees and add them to non-tree materials. They can be added to concrete and steel to make them stronger and lighter, and to plastics, clothing, and electronic components to make them infinitely more sustainable. As we collectively search for answers to climate change, nano-materials hold enormous potential in helping us make essential products stronger and more sustainable for people and planet.

Thankfully it’s happening not a nanosecond too soon.

The USDA Forest Service, Oregon State University, Siskiyou County, California, and the US Endowment teamed up to test a nanocellulose additive to concrete aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Yreka Bridge shows how adding Cellulosic Nanocrystals to a concrete mix can reduce the amount of cement in a standard concrete mix. This reduction in cement saves a considerable amount of CO2 emissions, makes concrete lighter and more durable - and it also stores carbon in the concrete.

By adding nanocellulose to concrete, it’s possible to improve its strength and help shift an essential building material like concrete from being a carbon problem to a being a carbon solution. More at https://woodisthenewconcrete.com/

Want more science? Get the data here and here and here and here.

Film by Inland Film Co.

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Reimagining Our Cities

Rethinking Our Carbon Future

Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber

A climate solution hidden in plain sight

The story of the Hidden Creek Community Center

They say good things come to those who wait. And for Hillsboro, Oregon nothing could be closer to the truth. After years of planning and several intense months of construction, the town opened its doors to a brand new community center this month.

At more than 51,000 square feet, with exposed wood beams that extend some ninety feet long, the Hidden Creek Community Center is among the first buildings of its kind, using mass timber technology - massive engineered wood beams and structural panels - in place of traditional, nonrenewable, construction materials like concrete and steel.

You only have to look at its sleek design to know that the building offers state-of-the-art facilities and public space, but what really makes this building special - and arguably, what really makes every mass timber building special - is that in addition to working for the community by providing critical infrastructure, this building is also working for the planet as a powerful climate solution.

When we first heard this we had a million questions. So many in fact, that we actually called up Swinerton Mass Timber - the company who built the community center - and talked to William Silva, Director of Pre-Construction, and asked him to lay it all out for us.

When the City of Hillsboro called you, were they looking for a climate solution?

We were working on the First Tech Federal Credit Union Corporate Offices which was the first project to bring mass timber to the Portland suburbs. And when we finished it in 2018, it was the largest mass timber project in the United States.

During the construction, Hillsboro’s City Manager and staff visited the site and saw what mass timber could do, particularly when the right project team was assembled. The City Manager directed his staff to explore mass timber as a potential option for the Hidden Creek Community Center.

Serving the community has always been a primary function of the City of Hillsboro and the use of mass timber for their new community center fit perfectly with that mission as it provides a connection to nature, a beautiful space for users, and a building that stores carbon rather than emits it.

So yes, I think that they were looking for the best option for their community.

Why did Hillsboro choose mass timber over concrete or steel?

There were many options on the table. A steel structure would have certainly met the physical requirement for the space, but mass timber provides so many additional benefits, that the community really saw value in.

From the design team to the engineers, the whole project team was really committed to creating a space that connected the community and upheld the goals of working towards a more sustainable future. One of the goals of the City of Hillsboro is: “...to envision a sustainable future, in which the City responsibly satisfies the needs of its residents, provides a healthy and satisfying work environment for its employees, and minimizes its impact on the physical environment of the community.”

So in that sense, choosing mass timber as the primary structural solution, was perfectly in line with their mission and sustainability plan.

What makes mass timber the perfect choice for a community center?

As you stand in the gymnasium looking at the 90 foot long glulam beams, it’s hard not to stare out the windows at the Douglas Fir trees on the other side of the glass and instantly make that connection to nature. Given the natural forests surrounding the area, mass timber was the perfect option to connect the community center with the landscape of the community.

Using mass timber is also a nod to the state’s rich timber history. Oregon has been home to sustainable forestry for years and so this building pays homage to those roots, though with a slightly modern twist. A lot of the material was locally sourced for the glulam beams and columns, and so this project connects with the community in more ways than one. We hope it will stand as a testament to the future of the timber industry in Oregon.

How do the benefits or advantages of mass timber translate into solutions for societal challenges?

There are so many additional advantages to mass timber construction over other materials. In terms of timing, our team was able to deliver the building 4 months faster than traditional steel construction, including overcoming permit delays so that the Community Center could open for fall programs.

I’d also say that with everything going on in the world right now, health and wellbeing have increased prominence in society today. The exposed mass timber structure provides a natural atmosphere for residents to enjoy as they utilize the space and studies have shown that working, living, and even recreating in spaces which connect you to the natural environment help reduce stress and lower blood pressure.

As a building material, mass timber has massive potential to spur a green building initiative that encourages sustainability and cost advantages. The use of mass timber in the Hidden Creek Community Center is just one example of the larger trend to utilize natural products - like mass timber - for a range of benefits.

It seems more and more companies, organizations, towns are setting sustainability goals. Where does mass timber fit in helping achieve these goals?

There are many advantages to mass timber helping to achieve the sustainability goals of companies and communities. The ability to use products grown, harvested, processed, and built in a region promotes a sustainable ecosystem which can have a net positive benefit for the carbon cycle. The future of buildings will include more sustainable solutions, and mass timber is a really, really powerful tool that can help us do that.

Let’s talk about carbon and sustainability. How can buildings be climate solutions?

The ability for a building to act as a climate solution is incredibly valuable.

Mass timber locks in and stores carbon in a way traditional building materials don’t. Owners and architects are increasingly focused on the carbon and sustainability story associated with the buildings we build. Every time we build a mass timber building our clients lead with the sustainability facts for the building - how much carbon it stores, how many cars off the road, etc. It is exciting to know that the building doesn’t just work, and isn’t just beautiful, it has a real positive environmental impact and people are excited about that.

original article written for Smart Cities Dive

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products

The 5 Flavors of Climate Denial

" it's not real, it's not us, it's not bad, it can't be fixed, and it's too late.”

Climate change denial is not new. In fact, for the better part of the last 20 years, there has been a growing body of misinformation that has shaped - and successfully slowed - the climate change debate.

Professor Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, has long talked about this misinformation as the “5 Flavors of Climate Denial: it's not real, it's not us, it's not bad, it can't be fixed, and it's too late.”

(Click To See Full Taxonomy)

Turns out, she was mostly right.

New research, published in the Scientific Reports Journal last November, used computational modeling to analyze and map contrarian claims about climate change over the last two decades. The result was a first of its kind comprehensive taxonomy of climate contrarianism (try saying that 5x fast!).

It found that there are indeed 5 major categories for climate denial that track very closely to Professor Hayhoe's initial assessment, though "fear of it being too late" was replaced by a belief around climate science being unreliable:

It’s not happening
It’s not us
It’s not bad
Solutions won’t work
Climate science is unreliable

Why This Matters.

The spread of misinformation has lead to a number of negative outcomes including reduced climate literacy, public polarization, reinforcing climate silence, etc.

Over the last several years, the forest sector has actively embraced and elevated the carbon and climate benefits of forests and forest products to a core tenet of what it does and why it does it. (#forestproud itself focuses exclusively on forest climate solutions as provided collectively by forests, forest management, and forest markets and products.)

Understanding this landscape and where climate deniers fit into it is critical to ensuring communication efforts resonate with the majority of Americans who believe climate change is happening (see our note from January 2022), and also effectively break down - or anticipate - obstacles that are designed to slow or stop that work.

Skeptical Science - a non-profit science organization focused on raising the public's understanding of climate change - has a dynamic list of 200+ climate change myths with talking points linked to the latest scientific data that disproves them.

It tracks closely to the climate contrarianism taxonomy model and is a fantastic resource we use regularly in our work engaging 18-34 year olds, beyond the sector, who care about climate change and want to understand the crucial link between forests and climate solutions.

These tools alone are not going to win over climate deniers. But understanding what the playing field looks like as we continue to champion forests and forest products as the key to rethinking our climate future is an increasingly important part of that puzzle.

- The #forestproud team

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products

Are Net Zero Commitments Failing?

Climate solution or no? It's complicated

Since we first started talking about net zero and forest-climate solutions, we've seen an explosion in the number of commitments being made for net zero commitments.

To date, more than 70 countries and 5,000 companies - accounting for over 80% of global emissions and 90% of GDP - have committed to net zero by 2050. (United Nations Race to Zero)

There has never been a time in our history where people and organizations have been more aligned in protecting the future of our climate.

So why isn't it working?

A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) released earlier this month shows energy-related emissions rose 6% in 2021. The 36.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide added to our atmosphere is not only an all time high, but far exceeds the offsets achieved from the dip in emissions we saw in 2020.

Grading Companies Net Zero Plans

A new report from 'As You Sow' - a shareholder advocacy nonprofit - helps shed light on this disconnect. Looking at data from the 55 largest U.S. companies (with climate commitments), they graded their net zero strategy against global climate goals.

Read the Full Report: Road to Zero Emissions.

The results? Not great.

"...the overwhelming majority of companies have neither established comprehensive GHG reduction goals nor demonstrated progress in reducing their emissions in alignment with net zero goals."

The report goes on to identify that two major factors contributing to these poor results include "skimming over emissions buried in supply chains" and "over-relying on carbon offsets, instead of transforming operations."

In fact, digging deeper, not a single company received an "A" grade for their emissions reduction targets, as every company is relying on carbon offsets to meet more than 10% of their goal. For some companies, that number is significantly higher.

In addition to an over-reliance on carbon offsets, only two companies - less than 5% of companies analyzed - have goals to reduce Scope 3, or supply chain emissions, which typically account for the vast majority of an organization's GHG profile.

While there is certainly nothing funny about this report, you can't help but appreciate the irony in the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, Tesla, ranking dead last.

Yikes.

So where do we go from here? As we've explored in other notes on net zero and carbon offsets, the devil is always in the details. As we continue to inch closer to a climate tipping point - despite these commitments - our hope is that reports like these continue to hold organizations accountable.

It is also a sobering reminder that - much like carbon offsets - we can't always rely on someone else to do the work. Forests provide powerful climate solutions. Forest management is how we deliver those solutions. And forest products and markets are how we sustain those solutions.

Like three legs of a stool, all three of these things must work in tandem, which means each of us has an important role to play in shaping the future of our climate.

- The #forestproud team

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products

Welcome to the Age of Decarbonization

Climate solution or marketing buzz?

There are A LOT of buzzwords used to talk about sustainability and climate change. Despite some being more meaningful than others, as climate conversations continue to increase, it is becoming easier to lump them all together and dismiss them as marketing buzz.

Like all trends, climate terms come in and out of fashion. One term whose star seems to be rising is: Decarbonizing / Decarbonization

What Does it Mean?

This is one of those rare occasions where the term actually means exactly what you think it means: removing carbon emissions from a system, product, or process. We have seen it used across industries and applications, from power grids and energy, to product manufacturing, supply chains, construction, and agriculture.

Perhaps it is this flexibility that makes the term so appealing to so many applications. Or maybe it is the simplicity of the concept that succinctly captures and conveys intent. Either way, we are starting to see it used more and more.

How Much More?

For a second, we wondered if this was one of those Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon situations, where you learn a new word and then you begin to see it everywhere. But the data suggests otherwise.

In looking back through our social listening data, the term 'decarbonizing' was used roughly 500 times by the forest sector (about 46x / month, or 1.5x / a day) in 2020. In 2021 (just one year later!), use spiked 120% with the term being used more than 1,200 times (a little more than 100x / month, or 3.5x / day).

Perhaps most interesting is over that period we saw the sentiment attached to the term increase from 70% to 90%+ positive, meaning more and more people are responding favorably to the concept.

Why Do We Care?

This is something we fight every day. As we work to build awareness and support for forest climate solutions, we continue to run into challenges. At best, this includes an innocent lack of awareness or understanding. At worst, it's peeling back misunderstandings around the system dynamics that underpins the sustainability of the sector.

As we continue to engage our target audience (18-34 year olds, beyond the sector, engaged on climate, looking for meaningful climate solutions), we are continually looking for actionable insights on how best to reach them and bring forest solutions to the climate conversation forefront. Understanding the latest trends in how to talk about an issue that consistently ranks as a top priority for them, is a critical piece of that puzzle.

TL;DR Decarbonizing is shaping up to be a powerful on-ramp for what we do.

- The #forestproud team

Reimagining Our Cities

Mass Timber

Forest Champion Spotlight | Susan Jones

Susan Jones designed some of the first Mass Timber buildings in the U.S. - including her own home. Today, Susan and her team continue to pave the way for Mass Timber buildings in North America by showing the world that there is no reason a building can't also be a climate change solution.

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Climate Change Perceptions in America

Alarmed. Concerned. Cautious. Disengaged. Doubtful. and, Dismissive.

A year ago, we explored the importance of the Yale Climate Change Communications Group and their work to map perceptions of climate change.

The initial report - 'Global Warming's Six Americas,' published in 2008 - assessed public climate change beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions to create six personas:

Alarmed. Concerned. Cautious. Disengaged. Doubtful. and, Dismissive.

This research has since been updated or expanded on at least 15 times, with the latest update to the core body of work coming in 2020 showing how distribution within each of these audiences changed between 2015 and 2020.

Spoiler alert: Over those 5 years, people became increasingly concerned about climate change.

Yale released its latest research on the topic: Climate Change in the American Mind.

For those interested in digging deeper on how perceptions of climate change are evolving and opportunities to better communicate on it, this is a must read. Even a cursory glance of the executive summary shows some surprising statistics:

Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who this it is not happening by 6 to 1 (76% vs 12%)
60% believe global warming is mostly human-caused
70% say they are 'somewhat worried" about global warming.
35% are 'very worried'
69% feel a personal sense of responsibility to help reduce global warming
2/3 believe that it it not too late to do something about it
61% disagree with the statement "the actions of a single individual won't make a difference"

These are among the highest numbers seen since the survey was first conducted nearly 15 year ago and a clear indicator that awareness - as well as concerns over - climate change are growing at an increasingly rapid rate.

Our Takeaway

This is just the tip of the iceberg (climate pun, maybe?). Climate conversations aren't just here to stay, they're going to become increasingly alarming and more prevalent in our day-to-day lives.

But it's not all doom and gloom. The fact that a majority of Americans believe it is not too late and that the actions of a single individual can still make a difference puts a massive spotlight on the importance of forests and forest products.

And we're excited to share that story this year. We believe forests provide powerful climate solutions, forest management is how we deliver those solutions, and markets and products are how we sustain them. We all have a part to play in keeping forests as forests, now and tomorrow.

- The #forestproud team

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Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Battle Royale: Orca 🐳 vs. 🌲Tree

Carbon Storage | Climate Tech vs. Natural Climate Solutions

Ah, the age-old debate: Orca vs. Trees.

No, no, no. Not that kind of Orca. (also, we're incredibly disappointed that there is not a better Orca whale emoji) We're talking about Orca - the first of its kind direct carbon capture plant, designed to draw down atmospheric carbon and store it permanently. It went live and has garnered some pretty impressive headlines as a climate solution.

And rightfully so! The Orca plant is a very cool piece of technology. It uses massive fans to suck in air and combines it with chemicals that can selectively remove C02 while releasing nitrogen and oxygen back into the atmosphere (hmmm that sounds familiar 🌲🌳). The carbon rich chemicals are super heated and converted to a pure gas, which is then mixed with water and injected into basaltic rock where over time, the dissolved C02 crystalizes - permanently storing atmospheric carbon deep within the Earth's crust.

While the concept is straightforward enough, there are just a few things keeping it from being a scalable solution and thus a key player in helping the world reach its Net Zero goals today.

Carbon Storage at a High Cost.

Aside from costing somewhere between $10 and $15 million to build, the Orca facility relies on a pretty unique combination of factors as explained expertly by Bloomberg, to make it work.

First and perhaps most importantly, this is an incredibly energy intensive process. The Orca facility is powered entirely by carbon-free geothermal energy which is awesome, but severely limits the opportunities for building other locations. Secondly, for this process to work there must be access to deep basaltic rock which are formed by rapidly cooling magma deposits (🌋), which further limits where this specific type of facility can be placed.

Lastly, there is capacity. While Orca is now officially the largest direct-air capture facility in the world absorbing 4,000 tons of CO2 a year, it just simply isn't large enough. To put 4,000 tons of CO2 into perspective, that is equivalent to the total annual emissions from roughly 250 U.S. citizens.

A Small Dent for a Very Large Carbon Problem.

So how does this compare to trees and forests? Well, there are more than 600 tree species in the U.S. alone, each uniquely suited to their specific growing locations, and supremely adapted to sequester and store carbon, just by doing their thing.

(Check out the full writeup that inspired this graphic from Ohio State University)

On average, a single mature tree can absorb more than 48 pounds of CO2 per year.

Considering a tree can grow for 30, 40, 50+ years - and extrapolated over billions and billions of trees around the world - you begin to see how trees and forests remain the undisputed carbon sequestration champions of the world.

Visualizing the Impact.

To give you an idea of just what that looks like, check out this incredible interactive data visualization tool - ForestCarbonDataViz.org - developed by our friends over at the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO). It uses publicly available data from the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency to show how the continuous cycle of growing, managing, harvesting, and replanting trees and forests holds enormous carbon benefits.

Getting to Net Zero by 2050 is an ambitious - and we believe necessary - goal. We are incredibly excited by the potential of the Orca project as we know that in order to achieve real success in our fight against climate change, it is going to require bold, innovative, and collaborative ideas - and all of us, collectively, working to rethink our carbon future.

So in actually it's less Orca vs. Trees and more Orca AND Trees! After all, it's true that no blue, no green amirite?

Further Reading

The State of America's Forests (U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities)
ForestCarbonDataViz.org (National Alliance of Forest Owners)
U.S. Forest Atlas (U.S. Forest Service)

- The #forestproud team

Reimagining Our Cities

Biomass + Renewable Energy, Carbon + Climate Change, Careers, Cities, Forest Management, Innovation, Mass Timber, People, Products, Urban Forests

FORESTS: Reimagining Our Cities

For the first time in history, more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in a city.

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Carbon Credits | silver bullet or a helpful tool?

A California Case Study

As savvy forest folks, we've followed the rise of Net-Zero climate commitments for a while now, and explored the critical role forests and forest products play in helping people, countries, organizations, and multinational brands alike meet their goals.

In addition to being able to trace potential solutions back to forests and forest products, the current wave of Net-Zero commitments has another thing in common: a lack of specificity on how they are going to get there. Just as there is no 'silver bullet' solution to climate change, there is no single answer to Net-Zero, and by extension, no prescriptive path on how to invest in forests to help us reach those goals.

So to better understand how forest investments fit into these plans, we looked at the University of California. Back in 2013 - way before Net-Zero was cool - they were among the first to make a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2025.

Looking at their latest sustainability report (2019), the University has made substantial investments into solar energy, electric vehicles, carbon neutral buildings, and innovative tools that turn food waste into energy. The result?

A 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2013.

Now, considering the size of the school and the fact that in the last seven years they've added 46,000 students, this is a significant accomplishment. But it is a long way from zero.

According to a report conducted by the University in 2017, the biggest barrier to reaching their goal is the natural-gas-powered plants responsible for heating and cooling its campuses, which together account for 65% of the school's total emissions. Initial estimates to overhaul the plants and convert them to electric were north of $3 billion -- and even if the University had the money, it would not change the fact the California's electric grid still relies heavily on fossil fuels.

Enter carbon credits and offsets.

Carbon Credits & Offsets

In an interview with the Washington Post, Barbara Haya, a climate policy researcher at the University of California, explained why after the 2017 report they started looking at carbon offsets: "The whole concept of offsets is to create a dynamic where organizations and individuals can pay someone else to reduce emissions in order to cover emissions they can't reduce themselves."

The concept is simple, however, the market and dynamics around offsets can be tricky, particularly when it comes to forests - which Haya said accounts for more than half of the offset projects out there.

While the number of mandatory offset markets are growing - government-backed programs that place strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions and allow members to buy credits or offsets from independently verified projects, e.g. forest conservation - the majority of projects still come from voluntary offset programs.

Voluntary carbon offset markets work much the same way, but without the regulatory oversight. In that sense, the market can be kind of like the wild west and there are more than enough examples to point to of organizations failing to do their due diligence before investing. That being said, the principles - as explained, explored, and eventually implemented by the University of California - are still sound.

Driven largely by growing corporate demand to offset emissions (read: increasing number of Net-Zero goals), the vast majority of the credits retired in 2021 - some 20 million credits - were focused on forest protection.

Types of Forest Carbon Credits

I know what you're thinking. Are there other types of forest carbon credits out there besides just protecting forests? YES! According to North Carolina State University, there are three generally accepted project types that produce carbon offsets:

1. Afforestation / Reforestation
2. Avoided Conversion
3. Improved Forest Management (IFM)

The first is pretty self-explanatory and typically includes projects focused on restoring tree-cover to previously non-forested lands. Avoided conversion projects focus on preventing the conversion of forested land to non-forested land, i.e. keeping forests as forests, not as parking lots. The last - Improved Forest Management - is actually the most common credit type in the California carbon credit market. These projects involve land management activities that increase, or at a minimum maintain, the current level of carbon stocking in a forest.

Each one of these has a role to play, and depending on the circumstances, can be a powerful tool when it comes to mitigating emissions and improving our climate.

A Win-Win-Win

When it comes to carbon credits and offsets, it is important to think of them less as a "get out of jail free card" and more as another tool in the toolbox. We know that healthy markets and strong demand for forest products are critical to incentivizing landowners to keep forests as forests.

We also know that as more and more companies and organizations look to reach their Net-Zero goals, they are going to run into "$3 billion natural-gas-powered plant" problems, where carbon credits and offsets are the best viable option.

In that sense, carbon credits and offset markets can be a win-win-win for companies, landowners, and the climate. Companies can offset their most challenging emissions, landowners can be further incentivized to keep forests as forests, and we can collectively begin to move the needle in the right direction for the climate.

Now, obviously, carbon credit projects and offset markets are far more complex than how they've been explained here - the devil is always in the details. But what the University of California Net-Zero efforts show us is that forests are a flexible solution to carbon and climate challenges. They provide solutions for everything from renewable energy (bioenergy) and green building (mass timber), to sustainable packaging (forest products) and carbon offsets (forest management).

TL;DR Forests are shaping up as heavy favorites to be the all-stars of Net-Zero commitments.

- The #forestproud team

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