Drawdown Georgia Business Compact Hosts Expert Workshop on Georgia-Grown Forest Carbon Removals to Educate and Empower Compact Members

The Compact’s Forest Carbon Working Group brings together key marketplace and educational leaders to address maximizing carbon removal, new economic opportunities for landowners, and protecting biodiversity in the state

Georgia is home to more than 22 million acres of working forests and expansive coastal wetlands, which are vital to combating climate change. These natural landscapes can support sequestering up to 41 million metric tons of CO₂ annually in the state, offsetting about 26% of Georgia’s total emissions. The Drawdown Georgia Business Compact (Compact) supports enhanced carbon sequestration capacities in tandem with essential emission reduction efforts among businesses across the state. In a recent by-invitation workshop, the Compact brought together key leaders in the forest carbon space to share the latest information and insights on carbon reduction, growing marketplace solutions, and resources available to reduce emissions.

“Our mission is to bring people together to discuss how to move Georgia forward when it comes to forest carbon sequestration and the credits associated with that,” says David Eady, director of industry engagement for the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and leader with the Compact. “We all need to know how to leverage the resources we have not only to maximize carbon removal but also to address how to support new economic opportunities for landowners, especially underserved landowners.” In conjunction with reduction efforts, everyone – business and individual alike – has a stake in protecting Georgia’s biodiversity through investments in restoring native ecosystems.

Earlier in the year, the Compact completed a short survey of members and found high demand for carbon solutions within the corporate community. Among only ten businesses, companies report they needed to offset close to 1 million metric tons of CO₂. “There’s a lot of growing demand and only limited supply,” says Eady. In the workshop, Richard Hall, president of Buckhead Resources, reaffirmed that reality. In his recent industry analysis for carbon reduction in Georgia, he reports great variability among companies in tracking toward their climate goals. Hall says, “There’s a very interesting dynamic for the markets where some corporations are in a completely different position than others in terms of addressing their climate objectives.”

Fortunately, Georgia is one of the most forested states in the nation. Hall says, “The state has the largest forest products industry in the country, so we’re certainly blessed with abundant forest resources.” However, accessing those resources for climate can be a challenge. That’s where companies like Anew Climate come in. As North America’s largest project developer of carbon offsets, the company leverages environmental markets to reduce CO₂. Lizzie Aldrich, vice president of business development at Anew, says “We’ve been doing this type of carbon development for over 14 years, and we’ve found working directly with landowners helps streamline the process and make efficiencies.”

Despite critical media reports about the accuracy of corporate reporting on carbon removals  and contraction of the carbon market in 2022 and 2023, carbon offset companies like Anew have continued to work diligently to develop forest carbon projects – which can take years – and lead the industry in reporting. “Anew has been a leader in making sure that every single carbon offset or removal that's generated is of the highest integrity, quality, accuracy, and rigor,” according to Aldrich. As such, the company undertakes meticulous analysis through annual satellite imagery, which benefits landowners by being listed as “dynamically assessed” on the registry. “If offsets are an imperfect solution, let’s work on refining them,” says Aldrich.

 While some offset carbon providers work primarily with larger landowners, acreage minimums can keep smaller property owners from participating. Sarah Ford, chief forestry officer at Forest Carbon Works, says, “Our focus is family forest landowners, and our acreage minimum is actually just 40 acres.” The company does both improved forest management and afforestation projects with clients. “We help support private forest landowners by conserving forests, family legacies, and recreation, and providing access to a landowner segment that historically has been left out of carbon markets,” says Ford. How the company provides market access to this smaller landowner base is through their proprietary carbon inventory and land evaluation tools.

Educational resources shared during the workshop included results of a recent survey of landowners by the Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education program, a collaboration between 13 university extension divisions and three USDA Climate Hubs, to provide family forest owners the tools and resources to navigate decision making around the evolving field of forest carbon. Even more, a roundup of recent research from the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources’ Sustainability Sciences identifies landowner concerns about property and assets needed for forest carbon projects, along with a forest assessment and best practices family landowners can adopt, for helping to sequester carbon on their lands.

In terms of the value of aggregating demand, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce have announced they’ve launched a buyers coalition to purchase 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removal. “It’s interesting to see these big companies coming together to aggregate their demand through an advanced market commitment in afforestation or carbon removal,” says Eady. “That sends a really strong message to the market that there’s going to be even more demand.” The Compact has partnered with the University of Georgia, the Georgia Forestry Foundation, the Georgia Forestry Commission, The Nature Conservancy, and others to create Georgia-grown forest carbon removal projects that will generate high-quality, high-integrity credits, with a special focus on small-acreage and underserved landowners. 

Stay tuned for the latest developments on the Forest Carbon Working Group and how the Compact is facilitating cooperative efforts to enhance carbon capture capacity and emission reduction in Georgia. 

Are you a Georgia business leader committed to sustainable solutions? Join other leading companies in leveraging the collective impact of the business community to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the state. Visit Get Involved on the Compact’s website or email David Eady, director of industry engagement.