St. Paul to Harvest Carbon Offset Revenue from City Trees

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a contract with Green Cities Accord, a nonprofit that sells carbon offsets based on the environmental benefit created by newly planted trees. Under the terms of the deal, the city is responsible for purchasing, planting, and maintaining the trees, and Green Cities Accord will sell the carbon offsets through its partner City Forest Credits.

The city planted 11,288 trees from 2020-2023 that will be monitored by Green Cities Accord during the 26 year project duration. In a presentation before the City Council, Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez said, “We’re continuing to do the work we do every day by planting trees and our partner Green Cities Accord is gonna do the rest.” He said the city’s goal is to plant 16,000 trees over the next three years, and the carbon offset program will help fund planting.

Michaela Neu, Director of Programs & Operations for Green Cities Accord, told the council that the carbon offset program has provided over $100,000 in funding to the Minneapolis Department of Parks and Recreation. Green Cities Accord “enrolls” newly planted trees with City Forest Credits and calculates the carbon stock that the trees will sequester over the project duration, taking into account an assumption that some trees will die or be destroyed in events such as extreme weather.

Offsets are sold at $40 each to organizations seeking to reduce their carbon footprints, and about 80% of the revenue will be passed on to the city. According to City Forest Credits' website, organizations that have purchased credits include PayPal, Microsoft, and the City of Austin.

Neu estimated that St. Paul could receive $96,000 in proceeds once the first issuance of offsets is sold, and the city could make $1.4 million over the project duration. The contract with Green Cities Accord requires the city to use funds from the offset program exclusively for “additional urban forestry activities.”

Following Neu’s presentation, Council Member Rebecca Noecker praised what she said was the project’s ability to “monetize” the city’s expansion of the urban tree canopy and create a “virtuous cycle” by providing the city with revenue to reinvest in this effort. The council voted 6-0 to approve the contract.

Carbon offset programs have been criticized for failing to take into account “additionality,” or whether an action that benefits the environment would have been taken without the existence of the offset program. St. Paul routinely plants trees along boulevards during spring and fall. The city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan sets a goal of “a long-term increase in canopy coverage citywide, with general goals of 40% tree canopy coverage in all neighborhoods outside of downtown and 15% downtown.”

Neu stated in an email that “the project activities, such as the quantification of carbon and co-benefits, signing a 26 year term legal agreement for responsibility, etc. are not business as usual project activities for St. Paul, thus making the project additional.”

A spokesperson for Rodriguez said in an email that “the trees planted from 2020-2023 were done so without this partnership on the horizon.” However, she noted that the revenue generated from the offsets will help the city fill the 10,000 vacant planting sites it currently has, as well as maintain existing trees.