Weyerhaeuser gets approval for its carbon removal project

Stephen Brashear/Getty Images News

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY) said Wednesday it has received a green light from the American Carbon Registry for its carbon removal project in Maine.

Covering about 50K acres and verified through a third-party auditor, the Kibby Skinner Improved Forest Management project is the first issuance of credits for Weyerhaeuser (WY) through the voluntary carbon market.

The project has an estimated initial credit issuance of nearly 32,000 mtCO₂e, with one credit equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.It's expected to generate 475K credits over the lifetime of the project.

The timber REIT, noted it's in the early stages of creating several IFM projects on certain areas within its 11M-acre land base in the U.S., including two in the South scheduled for completion in late 2023 or early 2024.

"Forests represent one of the largest and most readily available opportunities to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help address the impacts of climate change," says Russell Hagen, senior vice president and chief development officer for Weyerhaeuser. "Since launching our Natural Climate Solutions business, we have been working to develop forest carbon projects that can generate meaningful carbon additionality with measurable climate benefits.

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Comments

[johngonole]

Covering about 50K acres and verified through a "third-party auditor". And so it begins. An entire cottage industry will pop up of professionals making money doing absolutely nothing. I hereby audit that WV owns the land, has planted the trees, yeaaaa.

[Majesty824]

So…. Trees?

[Mcsabie]

So are they getting paid in carbon credits to plant trees replacing the ones they just cut down?

[Ivybanks]

@Mcsabie Not only that. The newly planted will also be harvested so basically a 10-15 year rotation cycle. Green Trees favors cottonwoods with fast growth and of course they provide the cutting for planting so additional profit. And they'll manage the project for a %, a good % of the proceeds of carbon credit sales.

[mpcascio]

What a bunch of nonsense. This is the biggest scam on the planet.

[Ivybanks]

@mpcascio This reminds me of the partnership Enviva announced with Green Trees last year. Basically I took it as forest owners getting paid when they cut down forest and then at taxpayer expense can get carbon credits to replant. Then they can sell the credits and cash in again.

[oscargarcia]

@Ivybanks What does this have to do with taxpayers? These aren't tax credits WY is getting; Carbon Direct sells the credits to private companies (like MSFT) so they can greenwash their annual reports.

[johngonole]

@oscargarcia lol, s t u p i d regressives. I mean seriously. It is like when the green building movement started and they gave points for using flyash in concrete mixes. Flyash for those that don't know is a by product of coal burning plants. It has some of the same properties as cement and so allowed companies to use less cement which is good for the environment. Basically it is recycling. The thing was that flyash had been in use for decades and you didn't need to reward anyone for using it because they were already doing so since flyash was cheaper than cement production.

I see the same thing here. WY isn't going to do anything new that they weren't going to do before. But I suppose if they get SPONSORED by MSFT or someone else they can claim they are helping the planet. I agree with other posters here. This literally doesn't change anything. Just more virtue signaling.