SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 11, 2012 – Last night, the American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, hosted its annual gala reception and dinner. Opening the event by welcoming California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols, Winrock President and CEO Frank Tugwell highlighted ACR’s activities to gear up for the California carbon market. He announced the hire of a California director who will work out of ACR’s new Sacramento office, the launch of a registry platform with APX, and the appointment of several state luminaries to its Advisory Council. To recognize outstanding environmental achievements of trailblazing organizations, ACR also presented awards based on ACR guiding principles of innovation, quality and excellence.

ACR advisor Cynthia Cory of the California Farm Bureau Federation presented Chair Nichols with the ACR’s first Climate Leadership award in recognition of her ambitious and transformational leadership to develop the first economy-wide cap-and-trade program in the United States. Cap-and-trade is the cornerstone of the state’s historic climate legislation, Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), which mandates a reduction in carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

“We are proud to award Chairman Nichols ACR’s first Climate Leadership award,” Tugwell said at the ceremony. “Her indefatigable approach to implementing AB32 in a way that balances economic, social and environmental concerns is unprecedented. It has inspired us to invest in people, service partnerships and a new office in the state’s capitol to help California to implement its program and continue to build a lowcarbon economy.”

During dinner, ACR presented its Innovation awards to the pioneering co-developers of two ACR emission reduction protocols. The California Rice Commission (CRC) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) were presented with the Innovation award for their collaboration on development an offset protocol for rice production in California. Through a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), CRC and EDF are expanding the protocol to include Mid-South rice production and are engaging rice producers in California and Arkansas in pilot offset projects to demonstrate benefits of producer participation in the compliance offset program.

“The California Rice Commission is pleased to be recognized for our pioneering work with EDF to develop an approach for generating greenhouse gas offsets to meet California’s climate goals,” said Paul Buttner, manager of environmental affairs for the California Rice Commission. “We plan to continue our collaborative efforts to develop this into a workable program for rice in California and the Mid-South. We are hopeful that the concepts we’ve developed, such as the use of process-based models in protocols and required aggregation, can contribute to efforts to develop offset protocols that benefit other commodity groups.”

“We are grateful to American Carbon Registry for their thoughtful and rigorous approval process, resulting in one of the first high quality offset protocols for agriculture,” said Rebecca Shaw, a climate scientist and associate vice president for Environmental Defense Fund. “Climate change threatens California’s economy and environment; agricultural offsets reduce climate emissions while delivering additional sources of income to farmers and ranchers in the state.”

Verdeo Group and Devon Energy were also presented with an Innovation award for the development of the first U.S. carbon offset protocol for the oil & gas sector. The protocol provides the quantification requirements to generate carbon offset credits by retrofitting existing high-bleed pneumatic controllers with low-bleed options, thus reducing vented emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, high-bleed pneumatic controllers are among the largest sources of vented methane by equipment type in the U.S. oil & natural gas industry. Two projects under this protocol are currently registered on ACR, and more are in the registration pipeline. ARB estimates that offsets from this project type could generate 15-20 million tons of CO2-equivalent emission reductions by 2015.

“We are very appreciative of ACR’s recognition of the hard work that led to the development and implementation of this first-of-its-kind methodology” said John Savage, managing director at Verdeo.  “We look forward to working with ACR to make offset credits from projects using the methodology available as compliance instruments in CA’s cap-and-trade program.”

The National Forest Foundation (NFF) received the ACR Commitment to Quality award for its dedication to National Forest restoration and stewardship. Chartered by Congress in 1991 as the nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service, NFF promotes the health and public enjoyment of the 193-million-acre National Forest System. NFF has planted over three million trees across the U.S., and recently announced its first reforestation project that will generate verified emission reductions registered on ACR. The project will restore 250 acres of the San Juan National Forest in Colorado destroyed by the 2003 Bear Creek Fire. Offsets generated by the project will be retired on behalf of Chevrolet as part of a larger effort by the company to offset 8 million tons of CO2 emissions over the next few years. The NFF is developing a similar project in California’s Angeles National Forest, which has already begun the ACR registration process.

“We selected American Carbon Registry because of the organization’s extensive knowledge of terrestrial carbon sequestration, understanding of public lands issues, and focus on accountability,” said NFF president Bill Possiel. “We are proud to receive the award and look forward to working with ACR on future forest carbon projects.”

Norfolk Southern was honored with the ACR Corporate Excellence award for its outstanding performance in measuring and reducing its emissions. Norfolk Southern has made a public commitment to reducing CO2 emissions 10% below 2009 levels by 2014 and reached nearly 40% of the five-year goal in the first year. The reductions were achieved through improvements in locomotive fuel efficiency, increased energy efficiency of buildings and railroad facilities, and operating efficiencies that allowed the company to move higher volumes of freight over its 22-state network. In addition to in-house emission reduction activities, in 2011 Norfolk Southern launched Trees and Trains, a $5.6 million partnership with ACR member GreenTrees to restore 10,000 acres in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley by planting six million hardwoods & cottonwoods.

“We appreciate ACR’s recognition of our environmental stewardship,” said Blair Wimbush, vice president real estate and corporate sustainability officer. “Our collaboration with GreenTrees will foster revitalization of the Mississippi Delta’s environmental health and generate economic benefits for a region long served by Norfolk Southern. Our company’s 180-year history tends to give us a long-term perspective, and this kind of sustainable, lasting initiative is exactly what we like to do.”

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The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity. Founded in 1996 as the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency and continues to lead innovation.

ARLINGTON, Va., October 24, 2011 – The Pinchot Institute and Winrock’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) announced today a partnership to pilot the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative, the world’s first demonstration of linking forest carbon projects with affordable health care services for forest landowners.

The loss of U.S. forestland is estimated at four acres per minute, and family forests are a major contributor. To find out what drives family woodland owners to sell or develop their forestland or harvest timber unsustainably, Senior Pinchot Fellow Catherine Mater conducted extensive research, including interviews of over 1,000 forestland owners and their offspring across the U.S. The findings revealed that one of the leading factors for sale, development or harvesting of family woodlands is to cover unexpected medical or longterm health care expenses.

With the average age of forestland owners now over 75, an estimated 40 million acres of family forests are at risk of being subdivided or completely converted to non-forest uses. The Forest Health-Human Health (FHHH) initiative was developed by Pinchot Institute to propose a solution to this high rate of loss of family-owned woodland due to development, and the unsustainable management or sale of family forestlands, due to unexpected healthrelated financial needs.

“Instead of developing, selling or harvesting their forestland, the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative will provide family forest owners the option to implement sustainable forest management practices to generate carbon offsets,” Mater said. “The revenue from carbon offset sales will be banked to cover health care expenses. The FHHH initiative is specifically tailored to address this link between forest conservation and health care, which is not addressed by existing federal and state programs that promote forest stewardship private lands.”

This creative twist on carbon markets provides forest landowners with greater financial security, helping to keep forest land in the family, even if a catastrophic health event should occur.

Pinchot selected ACR to serve exclusively as the global carbon offset standard and registry for the project. Pinchot Institute President Al Sample stated, “Pinchot selected ACR as our carbon standard and registry partner for the FHHH initiative not only because ACR has an approved IFM (Improved Forest Management) Family Forests methodology, but also because ACR has an established reputation for environmental rigor and workable forest carbon standards popular with a wide range of buyers.” ACR will also work with Pinchot to develop and/or approve new applicable methodologies for carbon offsets, as well as for the measurement of health-related co-benefits of the initiative.

Pinchot has kicked off the pilot phase with family forest landowners in Columbia County, Ore., who will develop projects to store additional carbon in their forests using ACR’s Family Forests IFM methodology. The FHHH pilot project will be among the first to use the new ACR methodology that was developed specifically with family forest owners in mind.

“We’re very excited about the prospects of this new program,” said Scott Russell, a Columbia County landowner and head of the local chapter of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association. “It is the first time that carbon seems like it could make sense for smaller forest landowners and the fact that credits will be used for health care is very attractive.”

There is a huge potential to build on the Oregon pilot and expand the FHHH initiative since family forest owners manage 264 million acres, or 35 percent, of all U.S. forestland. Pinchot will work with project development partners to scale the initiative and demonstrate the links between forest health and human health at the regional and national levels.

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 About the American Carbon Registry

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity. Founded in 1996 as the first private voluntary registry in the world, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting.

About the Pinchot Institute for Conservation

The mission of the Pinchot Institute is to strengthen forest conservation thought, policy and action by developing innovative, practical, and broadly-supported solutions to conservation challenges and opportunities. Pinchot Institute accomplishes this through nonpartisan research, education and technical assistance on key issues influencing the future of conservation and sustainable natural resource management.

Contact:

Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry Tel: (805) 884-1961 Email: mgrady@winrock.org

Brian Kittler, Pinchot Institute for Conservation Tel: (503)-836-7880 Email: bkittler@pinchot.org

28 April, 2011 (Hong Kong) – In a landmark transaction for the Ven economy, Hub Culture and a group of partners have successfully completed the first carbon offset trade to be priced in a virtual currency, Ven.

The contract, negotiated by Hub Culture Knowledge Brokerage Services, is for carbon offsets registered on Winrock International’s American Carbon Registry (ACR), which were sold and retired as part of Nike’s Mata no Peito initiative.

Mata no Peito is Nike’s long-term commitment to work with local organizations and communities to protect and replant forests throughout Brazil. Through the sale and retirement of carbon offsets to corporations and individuals seeking to reduce their carbon footprints, Nike will generate funds which it will donate as seed investments to innovative Brazil forestry projects.

With this Hub Culture transaction, the London Carbon Market becomes the first partner in the Mata no Peito initiative, seeding the Nike forestry fund and setting the stage for continuing growth in global Ven trading volumes.

“Nike is pleased to work with Hub Culture to list offsets for sale and retirement that will benefit the Mata no Peito initiative” said Hannah Jones, Nike VP, Sustainable Business and Innovation. “The transparent platform and virtual currency make it easy for partners around the world to become involved in protecting forests throughout Brazil.”

The transaction is the first carbon offset deal to use the Ven currency platform and represents a step forward in the evolution of the Ven global currency for international markets.

“ACR is thrilled to be a part of this revolutionary transaction,”” stated Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry director of business development. “Hub Culture’s facilitation of the first carbon offset sale in Ven together with the fact that proceeds are being donated by Nike to the Mata no Peito Brazil forest fund demonstrate that ACR is working with the right partners to fulfill our mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment.”

Advantages to both parties created by the Ven as the means of exchange for the transaction include greater international pricing stability and an implied carbon offset resulting from the basket of carbon futures, commodities and leading currency components which determine ongoing Ven values. The very use of Ven implies greater demand for future carbon projects, by helping to stimulate demand for carbon futures at large.

“London Carbon Market is proud to donate to the Mata no Peito Brazil forest fund by retiring credits registered by Nike on Winrock’s ACR. As Nike’s first partner in this initiative, we look forward to further involvement with Nike and other partners committed to making sustainable projects a success. Partnering with Hub Culture for the transaction using the Ven currency makes history as the first carbon trade to be priced in the Ven digital currency, a statement of leadership we are proud to be a part of” said Dr. Constantine Pagonis of London Carbon Market.                         

“This Ven transaction highlights the potential of Ven in the carbon markets, and delivers tangible benefits to Brazil through forest related initiatives. As part of our commitment to the creation of a more efficient economy that better tracks externalities, the Ven has particular advantages for everyone, including an embedded carbon signal and forward price stability. We are delighted to be working as a catalyst to connect the London Carbon Market with Nike and Winrock’s groundbreaking work for Brazil.” said Stan Stalnaker, Founding Director at Hub Culture.

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About Hub Culture

Hub Culture is a global network that operates the digital currency Ven, a network of Pavilions to drive community collaboration, and Knowledge Brokerage, a suite of services building value for the community.  Established in 2002, Hub Culture is focused on worth creation and deal generation for over 25,000 global-influencers, and is at the forefront of innovation in work and collaboration.  Learn more at HubCulture.com.  Twitter: @hubculture

About the American Carbon Registry 

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity.  Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency.

About the London Carbon Market 

London Carbon Market (LCM) champions the wisdom of green investment and social responsibility. LCM has at its foundation a board of directors which has over one hundred years of collective city experience in a spectrum of industries ranging from physical commodities trading, financial futures, and foreign exchange to financial investments. Coupled with socially conscientious blue chip partners, LCM is now at the forefront of the carbon market.

Official short links: http://hub.vg/FVCCT    http://hub.vg/Mata

Contact: Stan Stalnaker, Hub Culture Tel: +44 7974156 458 Email: stan.stalnaker@hubculture.com

Gurps Singh Tel. +44 7403515315 Email: gurps.singh@londoncarbonmarket.com

Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry Tel: 805 884 1961 Email: mgrady@winrock.org

ARLINGTON, VA, March 25, 2011 – On March 16th, American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, hosted its annual dinner in Washington DC. ACR presented awards to three outstanding ACR member companies. As has been the tradition since ACR joined Winrock, awards are based on the ACR guiding principles of excellence, innovation and quality.

Xcel Energy was honored with the ACR Utility Excellence award for its outstanding achievements in reducing its emissions. Xcel Energy has made a public commitment to reducing CO2 emissions 20% below 2005 levels by 2020 and has already reduced 11%, approximately 26 million tons, cumulatively since 2003. The company has been the nation’s  No. 1 one wind energy provider for the past six years, is ranked fifth among U.S. utilities for solar capacity, and boasts the largest U.S. voluntary green energy program by customer participation. In addition to implementing an innovative Colorado carbon offset pilot program, Xcel Energy is one of only ten S&P 500 companies listed in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s leadership indexes for progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and excellence in reporting.

“Our mission is to meet the needs of our customers and grow our business through environmental leadership,” said Dick Kelly, chairman and CEO of Xcel Energy.  “Every day, we work hard to balance customer demands for reliable, affordable energy with our goal to create a clean energy future, and we greatly appreciate the ACR’s recognition.”

Finite Carbon Corporation was presented with the ACR Innovation award for the development of the world’s first forest carbon risk mitigation product, the Carbon Reduction Guarantee. The product is offered exclusively for U.S. and international forest carbon projects registered on ACR. The guarantee allows companies to fully mitigate unforeseeable environmental risks or “reversals” up-front at a pre-determined cost. As a leading U.S. forest carbon project developer with over two million tons under contract, Finite Carbon identified the need for such a product to remove uncertainty, a key entry barrier to carbon market participation for most landowners.

“We selected American Carbon Registry as a partner for our guarantee product because of their deep domain expertise in forestry and willingness to explore new ideas,” said Scott Nissenbaum, President of Finite Carbon. “We’re very pleased to receive the ACR award and excited that we will soon announce registration of the first project to utilize the Carbon Reduction Guarantee.” 

Nike received the ACR Commitment to Quality award for the leadership the global brand has demonstrated mitigating its climate impact. Nike has made cutting greenhouse gas emissions across its operations, incorporating sustainability into product design and reducing its overall environmental footprint the cornerstones of its sustainability efforts. In addition to the company’s numerous awards and top environmental sustainability rankings, Nike has led collaborative efforts such as the GreenXchange for companies to openly share intellectual property with the goal of accelerating deployment of sustainable technologies. Nike has also been an early actor in the carbon market. In 2006 Nike completed a decade-long voluntary GHG emission reduction project to replace the gas in the air bags in their athletic shoes, which were originally filled with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a greenhouse gas 22,200 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The project reduced millions of tons of CO2, producing carbon offsets, which are registered on ACR. As one of its latest sustainability innovations, Nike is launching the Mata no Peito program, which will use its offsets as the basis of a venture to protect and recover forests throughout Brazil.

“Nike is delighted to receive this award from the American Carbon Registry and Winrock who have partnered with us in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and explore innovative ways to move the needle on climate change beyond our own operations,” said Sarah Severn, stakeholder mobilization director, Nike Sustainable Business and Innovation.  

American Carbon Registry is proud to work with environmental champions like Xcel Energy, Finite Carbon Corporation and Nike as well as past ACR awardees Blue Source, C2I, Carbonfund.org, Commonwealth Resources Management Corporation, Entergy and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).  

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About the American Carbon Registry

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity.  Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency and continues to lead innovation. www.americancarbonregistry.org

Contact: 

Mary Grady American Carbon Registry 805 884 1961 mgrady@winrock.org

ARLINGTON, VA, February 9, 2011 – Today American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, was announced as runner-up “Best Registry Provider” in the Environmental Finance 2010 Voluntary Carbon Market Survey. Survey results were based on write-in votes from over 500 global carbon market participants who were asked to base nominations on efficiency and speed of transactions, reliability, innovation, quality of service provided and influence on the market.

“Last year was a tough one in the voluntary carbon markets, in common with wider environmental trading,” said Mark Nicholls, editor of Environmental Finance. “But winners in our survey report a pick-up in interest and activity, as the economic clouds begin to lift and as North American participants ready themselves for a carbon market in California.”

Environmental Finance defines voluntary carbon as “carbon credits bought or sold to help organizations or individuals offset carbon emissions where they are not required by regulation to do so.” This may be to meet voluntary emissions reduction targets or to prepare for future compliance markets.

“As the first voluntary carbon registry in the U.S., ACR has a 15-year history of working with carbon market pioneers,” says Mary Grady, director of business development for ACR. “The ACR team is honored to be recognized for a continued focus on environmental integrity, innovation and quality of service.”   

This latest ACR recognition is on the heels of December 2010 award of runner-up “Best U.S. pre-compliance exchange” in Environmental Finance and Carbon Finance Global Environmental Market Survey in the North America Mandatory / Pre-Compliance Carbon Markets category. The survey – the most closely watched poll of sentiment across carbon, renewable energy, weather risk and U.S. emissions markets – reveals those firms that their clients, peers and competitors have judged to have provided the best service over the previous twelve months.

“The winners of this year’s survey are those that have stayed the course through the tough times,” said Mark Nicholls, editor of Environmental Finance.  “Time and again, survey respondents voted for those firms with a long heritage in what are still youthful markets, and rewarded commitment to helping their clients navigate often complex and fast-moving regulatory environments.”

While ACR is not an exchange, the December survey votes for ACR reflect the dearth of exchange options for the North America pre-compliance market, where registries have played a more prominent role to date. ACR is proud of the award as market recognition of the precompliance quality of ACR-registered offsets.

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About the American Carbon Registry 

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a

leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity.  Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency. www.americancarbonregistry.org

ARLINGTON, VA, November 30, 2010 – The American Carbon Registry® (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, announces approval of the Carbon Reduction Guarantee, a risk mitigation product for U.S. and international forest carbon projects. Companies registering forest carbon projects on ACR now have the flexibility to use the risk-mitigation product to guarantee their projects against unforeseeable environmental threats or “reversals” in lieu of making contributions to a buffer pool. The Carbon Reduction Guarantee, exclusive to ACR, is provided by Carbon Reduction Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Finite Carbon Corporation.

“As the leading forest carbon project developer in the U.S., Finite Carbon identified the need for Carbon Reduction Guarantees,” said Scott Nissenbaum, president of Finite Carbon Corporation. “We partnered with American Carbon Registry because of their deep domain expertise in forestry and are pleased to offer an ACR-approved risk mitigation product that can provide new peace of mind for landowners considering and undertaking carbon offset projects.”

Despite the significant environmental and economic co-benefits forest carbon projects provide, they also present an inherent risk of reversal of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions they produce. For example, reversals can occur due to natural factors (fire, hurricane, infestation) or a participating landowner’s decision to discontinue the project during its term. In either case, the carbon dioxide (CO2) which had already been quantified as an emission reduction could be reversed, or re-released, into the atmosphere.  

The risk of reversal is a difficult liability to manage since the future price of carbon is unknown. The Carbon Reduction Guarantee is a key innovation because it removes this unknown, allowing companies to fully mitigate reversal risk up-front at a predetermined cost. Carbon Reduction Corporation is responsible to ACR to cover reversals in projects using the product, regardless of the type or magnitude.

“Through our work with the U.S. forest sector, we have seen the importance of reducing uncertainty for carbon market participants to encourage participation,” said Jad Daley, climate program director at The Trust for Public Land.  “Having this kind of straightforward guarantee product will remove a key entry barrier at a pivotal moment for American carbon markets.”

To date, the primary risk-mitigation mechanism for forest carbon projects has been the buffer pool, a model pioneered by Winrock International and now employed by all major carbon offset programs including ACR. To register forest carbon projects, companies are required to conduct a project-specific assessment of reversal risk. Based on the risk assessment, they must contribute offsets equal to a percentage of overall emissions reductions to a pooled account to manage risk across multiple projects. In the event of any individual project reversal, an equal number of offsets are retired from the buffer pool to compensate for the loss.

Companies who use the Carbon Reduction Guarantee product are not required to make buffer pool contributions, so they can retain and sell all forest carbon offsets from their project at the attractive prices these often secure today.

“It makes perfect sense that forest carbon projects should have a financial guarantee mechanism like other industries,” said Nicholas Martin, ACR chief technical officer.  “We are excited to approve this product that allows project proponents and landowners implementing ACR afforestation / reforestation, improved forest management and REDD projects to market all their offsets, yet fully mitigate future reversal risks. ACR strives to lead the market in innovation while maintaining the highest standards of environmental integrity that voluntary and precompliance buyers demand.”

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About the American Carbon Registry® 

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry® (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity.  Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, sciencebased carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency. For more information, please visit www.americancarbonregistry.org

About Winrock International

Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. Winrock is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark. www.winrock.org.

Contact:

Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry® Tel:  (805) 884-1961 Email:  mgrady@winrock.org

ARLINGTON, VA, September 27, 2010 – The American Carbon Registry (ACR) announces approval of an Improved Forest Management (IFM) Methodology for Quantifying GHG Removals and Emission Reductions through Increased Forest Carbon Sequestration on U.S. Timberlands developed by Finite Carbon Corporation, a leading U.S. forest carbon project developer.

The methodology targets privately owned industrial timberlands in the U.S. managed under an existing commercial timber harvesting program. Landowners must make a long-term commitment to manage their properties to sequester carbon above and beyond what would normally occur under an institutional timber owner’s typical business-as-usual management.

The methodology approval is groundbreaking for the possibilities it unleashes in the market. Despite the enormous potential for hundreds of millions of acres of private forestlands in the U.S. to participate in the carbon market, to date only five forest carbon projects have been registered and verified. Four of those are California-based projects registered on the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), and the fifth is a large multi-state project registered on ACR. The dearth of projects is due to the lack of workable, scientifically sound methodologies for key project types such as IFM. The methodology, the first to specifically target industrial timberlands, applies conservative assumptions throughout to ensure no crediting of non-additional activities, a flaw that has plagued existing IFM methodologies. It will be complemented in the future by other ACR methodologies for nonindustrial private forests and public lands.

“The Finite Carbon IFM methodology fills a critical gap in the U.S. forest carbon market by providing a straightforward and scalable framework for commercial timber land managers to develop high-quality IFM projects,“ said Nicholas Martin, ACR’s chief technical officer. “We expect to see many good projects come to market.”

IFM has been included as an eligible project type under both House and Senate cap-and-trade bills, and ACR’s methodology approval process of public consultation and expert peer review is consistent with criteria for pre-compliance recognition in recent federal bills as well as state and regional programs. This means that offsets resulting from projects developed following the new ACR methodology are a strong pre-compliance choice. Forest carbon offsets are also widely sought after in the voluntary market, where corporate social responsibility buyers seek “charismatic” carbon offsets, such as those that protect forests.

“We appreciate the rigor of ACR’s public comment and external scientific peer review process for methodology approval,” said Sterling Griffin, Finite Carbon’s vice president for project development and the methodology’s lead author. “The process really helped clarify and improve the methodology. Finite Carbon has been impressed by how quickly, yet comprehensively the process was completed, creating confidence that the methodology was meticulously evaluated by experts and found to be environmentally sound.”

“This is a major milestone for Finite Carbon and our forest carbon project portfolio throughout the

United States,” added Scott Nissenbaum, president of Finite Carbon. “We need to offer solutions and options to landowners and quality offsets to buyers. We have been impressed with the knowledge and expertise at Winrock and ACR, which will facilitate this process,” he continued.  “The end result is a methodology that balances concerns of commercial operability, environmental integrity and cost, all of which are crucial for high-quality projects to be developed on a scale that will have an impact.”

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About the American Carbon Registry 

The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity.  Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar in the global voluntary carbon market for offset quality and operational transparency. For more information, please visit www.americancarbonregistry.org

About Finite Carbon Corporation

Finite Carbon is the country’s No. 1 forest carbon developer based on listed U.S. projects. It provides landowners with a single-source, end-to-end solution to create and monetize carbon offsets. Solely focused on forest carbon, the company was founded in 2009 by forestry and finance experts, and offers the most comprehensive forest carbon project development and commercialization service in the country. Finite Carbon, which has to date secured contracts for two million carbon offsets, valued at $12 million, is headquartered in Wayne, Pa., and has offices in San Francisco, Calif., and Cherry Creek, N.Y. For more information, please visit www.finitecarbon.com

Contact:

Mary Grady, American Carbon Registry Tel:  (805) 884-1961 Email:  mgrady@winrock.org

Rick Sacks, for Finite Carbon Tel: (973) 467-8728 Email: rick@smartpr.net

WASHINGTON, D.C. (5/21/10) – Winrock International congratulates Christiana Figueres on her recent appointment as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. Figueres is a board member of Winrock International, parent organization of the nonprofit American Carbon Registry.

Ms. Figueres takes the helm at a pivotal time for international climate change negotiations, following fractured negotiations in Copenhagen and leading into follow-on meetings in Cancun this December at COP16. “There is a clear need to rebuild trust in the UN process,” remarked Ms. Figures, “and one can start doing that in Cancun delivering concrete results.”

Winrock President Frank Tugwell believes Ms. Figueres is uniquely qualified for the prestigious appointment. “Not only has Ms. Figueres been a valuable member of Winrock‟s Board of Directors, she has displayed impressive leadership in international climate negotiations and collaborated extensively with organizations in the private and public sectors,” Mr. Tugwell said.  “She has also been an important technical advisor to us on matters related to our climate change programs and, in particular, Winrock‟s American Carbon Registry. All of us at Winrock have the utmost respect for Ms. Figueres and congratulate her on this important appointment.”

Ms. Figueres‟ impressive career includes leading the Costa Rican UNFCCC negotiating team since 1995, representing Latin America and the Caribbean on the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in 2007, and serving as Vice President of the Conference of the Parties for 2008-2009. She has helped establish national climate change programs in Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

“One of Ms. Figueres‟ really key contributions to the climate change dialogue is the concept of

„programmatic‟ or „sectoral‟ CDM,” said Dr. Timothy Pearson, one of Winrock‟s forest carbon experts recently appointed to the CDM Executive Board Afforestation/Reforestation Working Group. “This approach targets reductions achieved at a sectoral level—for example in renewable energy, energy efficiency, fuel switching and other areas—and is a key complement to more traditional CDM projects as a way to mobilize capital, scale up reductions and deliver benefits to households and small and medium enterprises.”

The sectoral CDM concept has been incorporated in the recent Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act as a potential international offsets mechanism.