Reduce your carbon footprint with Appalachian Forest Offsets

Reduce your carbon footprint with Appalachian Forest Offsets

March 30, 2010

BEREA, KY. —With just a few clicks of a mouse, you can now take direct action to keep Appalachian family forests healthy and growing for the future and help fight global climate change. Through a new website developed by the Appalachian Carbon Partnership (ACP), individuals, families, groups and businesses can now do their part to reduce their carbon footprint by offsetting their emissions with Appalachian Forest Offsets.

Carbon offsetting works by connecting people who want to balance out their carbon footprint with family forest owners who are practicing sustainable forest management and storing additional carbon in their forests.

The new ACP website provides a calculator tool to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions that are released into the atmosphere through travel, home energy use, and other everyday activities. Tips and resources for reducing emissions are available, and any unavoidable emissions can then be balanced out with Appalachian Forest Offsets.

“We created the Appalachian Carbon Partnership to promote sustainable forest management,” said Program Manager Scott Shouse. “We are tapping into the growing market for carbon offsets to provide the economic help family forest owners in Central Appalachia need to implement sustainable management on their land. The money from the offsets goes directly to family forest owners who have made long-term commitments to practice sustainable forest management, which will benefit families and forests for generations to come.”

The ACP is made up of three organizations, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) in Kentucky, Rural Action in Ohio and Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) in Virginia. The project website is www.AppalachianCarbonPartnership.org.

About the Partners

MACED creates economic alternatives that work for low-income people and natural places. Visit www.maced.org. Rural Action is a sustainable development organization that has worked since 1991 to foster social, economic and environmental justice in Appalachian Ohio. Visit www.ruralaction.org. Appalachian Sustainable Development develops healthy, diverse and ecologically sound economic opportunities through education and training, and the development of cooperative networks and marketing systems. Visit www.asdevelop.org.

Visit the Appalachian Carbon Partnership website.