Project History and Details

GREENTREES PROJECT HISTORY

Defining the Carbon Market Since 1996

Prior to GreenTrees officially launching in 2003, the company’s founders were deeply engaged in the early development of the carbon market as far back as 1996. Their active participation in shaping the foundational principles of carbon trading and sequestration gave them a unique perspective on the potential of nature-based solutions. This early involvement allowed them to contribute to the creation of a framework for carbon markets that would later influence GreenTrees’ success as a leader in reforestation and high-integrity carbon removal projects.

Project Information

Registry: ACR
Project Name: GreenTrees ACRE (Advanced Carbon Restored Ecosystem)
Project ID: ACR114
Project Type: Afforestation/Reforestation
Removal or Reduction: Removal
Structure: Programmatic Aggregation with Multiple Start Dates
Location: Project is for the US Forest Service Southern Region. Most acres are concentrated in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. However, the project is expanding into other states with the Southern Region.
Start of First Verification: January 1, 2008
Number of Parcels: 600+
Validation Until: 2047
Standard: ACR Standard Version 2.1, November 2010 and ACR Forest Carbon Project Standard 2.1
Methodologies: Methodology for Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Land v 1.0
Ex Post Facto or Ex Ante: Ex Post Facto

Distribution to Our Landowner Partners

In 2022, GreenTrees began showing how carbon dollars are flowing throughout the project region through a distribution heat map. The map is currently in the process of being updated to reflect 2023 distributions.

GreenTrees by the Numbers

The Global Leader in Reforestation Carbon Credits

GreenTrees is a leading nature based solutions project and the largest U.S. Reforestation project with a 99.7% market share of ex post facto vital credits issued to date. In fact, GreenTrees is the largest nature based voluntary carbon project in the US. GreenTrees has invested and/or distributed over $100mil in a public/private partnership model. Our programmatic approach helps to ensure project performance.

Current Verification:Vintages 2022/2021
Current Verifier: Aster Global Environmental Solutions, Inc.
Project Documents:
Verification Reports from Independent Accredited Verifiers
Issued Credits and Buffer
Cumulative Metric Tons: 7,792,791 (Including Current Verification)
Total Buffered Metric Tons: 1,421,080 (Including Current Verification)
Total Acres Verified: 136,650.40
Number of Landowners: 600+
Range of Size: 7 acres to 3,500

GreenTrees 20+ Year History

For over 20 years, GreenTrees has been shaping the carbon markets.

1996

1997

2002

2003

Environmental Resource Trust (ERT), a spin off of Environmental Defense Fund, is founded as first private carbon registry (eventually Winrock International acquires ERT and rebrands it as American Carbon Registry – ACR)

Kellogg Graduate School of Management sponsors Senior-Level Book on Global Climate Change. Chandler co-authored a chapter with Maggie Bryant, Chairperson of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as well as Environmental Resource Trust. Other authors include Dirk Forrister (Chairman of White House Task Force on Climate Change), Undersecretary Sec. Tim Wirth, BP Chairman John Brown.

DOE forms Utilitree Carbon Company with 40 utilities doing carbon reforestation pilots in MS Delta. Subsequently, PowerTree Carbon Company follows.

USDA makes carbon sequestration a purpose to which landowners own the right to the carbon.

We convened a Carbon Reforestation Summit in Mississippi with Utilities, Traders, Landowners, and NGOs.

On St. Patrick’s Day, we formed our company to create a public private partnership between landowners, government, and companies for carbon reforestation.

On Earth Day, Agriculture Secretary Visits MS Delta to talk Hardwood Reforestation and Carbon.

GreenTrees by the Numbers

The Growth of GreenTrees

As a programmatic aggregator, GreenTrees is structured as a pool of landowners that grow in two ways — 1) as the trees grow year over year and 2) as new lands enter the pool. Because of our structure, GreenTrees has never had a reversal in its 20-year history, ensuring the highest level of permanence, atmospheric impact, and integrity.

For a reversal to happen in the GreenTrees Project, the pool of assets would have to go negative year over year. Unlike most projects where various risks could occur, creating a single point of failure, our programmatic aggregator approach creates an insurance mechanism through the structure. While there could be various impacts on individual GreenTrees lands over time, the impacts of such would mean the pool only grew by so much.