Pledge by City Forest Credits
Carbon Offsets and Impact Certification for Reforesting Cities and Enriching Communities
Supporting actions: Conservation Finance,
City Forest CreditsTM is a national nonprofit organization that manages carbon protocols and issues third-party verified carbon offset credits to city forest projects. For non-carbon credit projects, City Forest Credits (CFC) certifies the design and implementation of tree planting projects through Impact CertificationTM. Our science-based impact standards assess and demonstrate social equity, human health, and environmental benefits of tree projects. CFC does not develop projects or buy, sell, or broker credits.
We provide reliable, transparent, and efficient pathways for the private sector to contribute towards city forest projects that will help grow 1 trillion trees by 2030. Companies can purchase verified carbon offsets from urban forest projects or invest in certified planting projects with demonstrated health, equity, and environmental impacts. Companies can thus leverage their carbon offset or social impact dollars where they matter most, trust in the standards, and be able to report on data from high-quality projects.
City Forest Credits work with cities, counties, conservation districts, land trusts, and nonprofits that are leading tree projects across the country. We also collaborate with national urban forest leaders such as American Forests, Arbor Day Foundation, Urban Drawdown Initiative, Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, and Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition.
As a specialized national carbon registry, we work with local leaders such as municipalities or nonprofits that are planting and protecting trees in urban areas. With a cross-sector national protocol drafting group of leading experts, we developed two carbon protocols, or rulebooks, for planting and preservation tree projects in metropolitan areas. We provide the resources for local leaders to quantify carbon sequestration and co-benefits of their projects, earn carbon credits, and sell these premium credits to buyers. Our role is to maintain integrity and quality through the process, provide guidance, issue and track third-party verified credits, and monitor compliance.
The second service we provide is to accelerate access to funding for high-value planting projects through our Impact Certification. We certify the design and implementation of planting projects that demonstrate social equity, human health, and environmental impacts. Companies can provide funds for projects that align with corporate social and environment responsibility goals and enrich communities. Impact Certification provides standardized project reporting with science-based metrics and scores that illustrate the value of trees in our communities.
Our two pathways, carbon offsets and certification, require responsible and equitable urban forestry. The revenue that local leaders earn from selling carbon credits allows them to reinvest funding into staff capacity, growing their programs, and long-term maintenance and stewardship of our urban forests. Local entities leading certified impact projects will use our science-based Impact Scorecard to design a project, which include 90 indicators for social equity, human health, and environmental impacts of tree projects. Community inclusion in site selection and decision-making throughout the process is key to addressing historical and current inequities.