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As climate change becomes one of the most prominent issues facing everyone around the world, reducing one’s carbon footprint has become a moral imperative for most.
However, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to live without producing a carbon footprint, so in these circumstances, carbon offsetting can make a realistic contribution to an individual’s carbon balance sheet.
One of the most effective and pro-active ways to offset your carbon is to plant a tree in a woodland. As trees grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and release Oxygen. Being long-lived, this carbon remains locked away for hundreds of years. A mature Oak tree, hundreds of years old, could contain 40 tons of wood, over half of which would be carbon.
In addition to the carbon sequestration attributes of trees, the biomass of an overall woodland also soaks up tons of carbon. A mature woodland for example could contain per acre:
• 4 tons of bacteria
• 1.5 tons of fungi
• 0.5 tons of plants
• 0.25 tons of worms
• 170kg of protozoa
• 50kg of slugs & snails
• 25kg of spiders
• 5kg of beetles
• 3.5kg of mammals
• 1kg of birds
In addition, one acre of woodland will produce 2 tons of leaf litter every year, which decomposes slowly and create forest soils.
The Native Woodland Trust is currently planting thousands of trees in our woodland, Farnaght Wood in Co. Leitirm, with more woodlands to come. For €34 we will plant a tree for you and send you a certificate acknowledging the planting of the tree. To download a sponsorship form, click here
It is difficult to definitively calculate how much carbon is sequestered by an individual tree. Different species grow to different sizes and at different rates. How many trees you need to offset your carbon also depends on the period of time over which you wish it to take place.
For this reason, we make no claims regarding how much CO2 our trees will absorb. However, 1 tree per 1 tonne of carbon is not a bad place to start!
In order to help you calculate how much carbon you need to offset, the following are links to a number of different carbon calculators:
For companies and large organisations, we recommend Carbon Decisions, who can provide a carbon auditing services and assess your overall Carbon usage, recommend solutions to reduce and finally ways to offset the remainder.
For individuals based in Ireland, we recommend the following Carbon Calculator: Ireland's Climate Change Calculator
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