Addressing Climate Change
Saving tomorrow starts today
As a company that takes decades to bring our products to market, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future; of our forests, our community, our planet. They’re all connected. So in everything we do, we think about how we will impact them. Not just today, but for generations to come. After all, you don’t reach a 5th generation of family-ownership by being short-sighted.
The Opportunity
We Must Act Now
We believe working forests must be part of our region’s, our nation’s and our planet’s response to climate change. Through our experience with forest carbon offsets in New Zealand over the last decade, we’ve seen the promise they bring, allowing us to invest in both the economic and environmental sustainability of our forests.
Our Winston Creek Carbon Project is helping us bring this model to our forestland in the US.
Our Approach
A Solution is in the Trees
In the Pacific Northwest, we found a forest for which we delayed harvest 20 years beyond standard practice carried about twice as much carbon as a typical industrial tree farm. This approach can help forestland owners overcome the barrier of the additional cost of managing forests to support habitat and conservation goals by monetizing the extra carbon – or additionality – being sequestered.
The carbon credits produced by our 10,000-acre Winston Creek carbon project are being sold on the voluntary market. This allows us to continue to invest in this forest, supporting an ecosystem that will continue to sequester carbon every day for the next 40 years.
A First Step
One Way to Restore Nature's Balance
Our customers are drawn to forestry offsets as one way they can invest in their own sustainability efforts. They include forward-thinking organizations such as Puget Sound Energy which has bought our credits to support their Carbon Balance program. While carbon offsets are not a silver bullet for the climate crisis, they do move us in the right direction, allowing like-minded organizations to work together to do something about their environmental impact now.
For more information about Port Blakely’s Forest Carbon Credits, please contact Kevin Cook at kcook@portblakely.com.