• Sustainability

Trump Administration Finalizes Weak Rules On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Airplanes

• #COVID
• airlines
• biofuels
• carbon offsets
• greenhouse gas emissions

The first rules to attempt to reign in greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes went final last week — the only problem is that it won’t actually reduce emissions below current levels because they merely codify improvements the industry is already making, The Hill reported.

Why This Matters: Transportation emissions are one of the largest sources, and even though airline emissions are only around 9% of the U.S. total, they had been increasing greatly pre-pandemic.

• Forests

California’s Cap and Trade Offset System Created A Market for Forest Preservation

• California
• cap and trade
• carbon offsets
• conservation
• market
• trees

The Wall Street Journal published an eye-opening piece yesterday by Ryan Dezember (with beautiful photos and video by Brett Carlsen) that describes a burgeoning national market in carbon offset credits created by landowners promising to leave trees on their land standing.  The buyers are “investing” in trees and holding the credits — and it’s not […]

• Sustainability

New Report Finds Protecting 30% of US By 2030 Provides Major Carbon Offsets

• #30x30
• carbon offsets
• carbon sequestration
• carbon sink
• climate change
• nature based solutions

New research by the Center for American Progress (CAP) takes this analysis the next step and calculates the carbon sequestration benefits of various nature-based solutions being contemplated as part of the effort to conserve 30% of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030.  Forests and other lands in the United States, if properly conserved, have the potential to store an additional 1,000 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.  

Why This Matters:  We need to use our full arsenal of tools to sequester carbon.

• Sustainability

Sustainability Pledges Take Flight in Airline Sector

• aviation
• biofuels
• carbon footprint
• carbon offsets
• Delta
• jetBlue

Delta Airlines (the world’s largest airline) and jetBlue have recently made big commitments to lower their carbon footprint, with Delta last week pledging to become “carbon neutral,” by 2030 and plan to invest $1 billion in achieving the goal, while JetBlue announced in January that it will be the first U.S. airline to pledge to offset all domestic flights beginning in July and United Airlines had previously committed $40 million to sustainable aviation development. 

Why This Matters:  If governments won’t force emissions to come down through regulation, then the fact that businesses are willing to make these pledges is even more significant.

• Sustainability

Green Holiday Gift Guide 2019

• carbon offsets
• gift guide
• green products
• National Parks
• plant-based diet
• single use plastic
• sustainability

Hey #FriendsOfThePlanet, if you’ve been reading the email all week then you will have seen our picks for meaningful green gifts for you and your loved ones. We’ve compiled all of our recs into this handy guide and hope that if you’re looking for gifts, that you love all of these items and experiences as […]

• Sustainability

Holiday Gift Guide: Give the Gift of Carbon Offsets

• carbon footprint
• carbon offsets
• holidays

This year, that climate guilt in the form of “flight shaming” set in.  Many people started thinking hard about their own carbon footprints after climate activist Greta Thunberg made headlines by sailing to the large UN climate meetings in a solar-powered boat rather than flying to them and by taking trains to events around Europe.  […]