World’s First Distinguished Removal Credits from Forest Carbon Portfolio Announced by Bluesource/Element Markets

World’s First Distinguished Removal Credits from Improved Forest Management Announced by Bluesource/Element Markets

Salt Lake City, UT: Blue Source, LLC (“Bluesource”), the largest carbon credit developer and marketer in North America, who in February announced a merger to form a combined entity with Element Markets, LLC (“Element Markets”), a leading renewable natural gas marketing and environmental commodities company, is pleased to announce the premiere offering of carbon removal credits from Bluesource’s Improved Forest Management (IFM) portfolio.  

Removal credits represent carbon dioxide pulled from the atmosphere and sequestered for the long term in trees, specifically through new tree growth, within a project area.  Reduction credits represent prevention or reduction of emissions that would have taken place, had changes in management practices (such as through reductions in harvest levels) not been implemented. This is the first registry-approved means of distinguishing removal and reduction credits for IFM projects. 

The May 4 issuances to the Elk and Boone Forestlands IFM projects marks the world’s first removals credits to be monitored, third-party verified, issued, and publicly tagged. In conjunction with recent updates from the American Carbon Registry (ACR) these benefits may now be consistently, verifiably, and publicly distinguished; providing additional confidence to buyers with a preference for removal credits. 

Across North America, thousands of companies, organizations, and individuals have made voluntary commitments to lower their emissions in accordance with their public statements for climate responsibility and action. Many of these organizations have turned to carbon credits to meet these commitments through investment in emission reduction and removal projects that conserve forests and grasslands which then sequester additional carbon in growing trees, soils, and plant matter. Organizations who are striving to achieve “net zero” and have aligned with the Science-based Targets Initiative may look to removals to reduce or neutralize their remaining greenhouse gas footprint after implementing internal reduction measures.  

“Bluesource has been providing differentiated conservation and removals credits from our portfolio to our buyers for some time now, but this represents the first time that such removals will be tagged publicly offering more transparency for market observers and participants and a direct removal solution for organizations to get closer to their net zero goals,” stated Ben Parkhurst, Vice President of Technical Development at Bluesource. “We’re thrilled to be able to seamlessly offer tagged forestry removal and reduction credits from our portfolio for all forestry issuances moving forward.” 

The American Carbon Registry is the first independent, non-profit body providing the platform for the issuance, trading, and retirement of the IFM removal credits. All future issuances of IFM project credits using the ACR’s IFM Protocols 1.3 and 2.0 may designate removal tags on VERs from the portion of issuance associated with carbon removal and long-term storage. Additional registries are working to tag removals from an initial set of protocols, including forestry, regenerative agriculture, CO2 mineralization and biochar over the coming months.  

“We’re proud to be the first independent, non-profit entity providing a platform for the issuance, trading, and retirement of the removal credits from IFM projects,” said Kurt Krapfl, Director of Forestry at ACR. “As the voluntary carbon market continues to grow, organizations are thinking about how both removal and reduction credits fit into their climate strategies, and we are happy to now differentiate these benefits so they can make informed decisions on what best fits their needs.”   

Bluesource/Element Markets projects that are slated to be tagged with removals over the spring of 2022 include the Elk and Boone Forestry Projects in southeastern Kentucky, Blue Ridge Escarpment in South Carolina, and the 100-Mile Wilderness Project which is adjacent to the last leg of the renowned Appalachian Trail in Maine.

Buyers can now look for this badge on Bluesource/Element Markets project features with certified removal credits.  

Widespread societal changes are required to meet our necessary global climate goals. While a notable percentage of emissions can be avoided through mindful and limited consumption of energy and materials, certain emissions are too expensive or currently impossible to reduce entirely without available alternatives (e.g. airline fuel). The carbon market has successfully served as a mechanism to cut, avoid, and sequester emissions by incentivizing development of new emission reduction and removal projects that would not have happened otherwise.   

For sales and additional information about the Anew IFM portfolio, please contact: sales@anewclimate.com