A Wilmington company has found success in its efforts to earn carbon offset credits on thousands of acres of coastal habitat in South Carolina, the firm announced Thursday.
 
Green Assets Inc., an environmental asset development firm, said in a news release that it has completed the first-ever compliance-grade Avoided Conversion carbon offset project in the U.S. for the conservation of more than 3,700 acres near Charleston, South Carolina.
 
Formerly an agricultural parcel, forestland next to Charleston’s Middleton Place, a national historic landmark that includes landscaped gardens dating to 1741, was incorporated into the project, the release said.
 
The Green Assets-Middleton Place partnership represents the first and only Avoided Conversion project to be issued offset credits by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), according to the release. The ARB's initial issuance amounts to more than 250,000 carbon credits, to be used in the state's compliance market. Avoided Conversion projects, the release explains, prevent forestland from being developed by dedicating the property to continuous forest cover.
 
"We're proud to be the first company to earn this designation from the state of California, and we look forward to helping other landowners across the country realize the economic and environmental benefits that the ARB program offers," said Chris Newton, CEO of Green Assets, in the news release.

June Duell, part owner of the Middleton Woodlands as the property is called, said the owners were thrilled to complete the project. "The positive economic impact ensures that future generations will have an income stream from the property while allowing us to fulfill our mission of environmental sustainability and historic preservation," Duell said in the announcement.
 
At an ARB auction this month, regulated businesses required to purchase California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) to account for their carbon dioxide emissions bought more than 93.5 percent of the available allowances, a separate Green Assets release said.
 
In January, Green Assets announced that it had been awarded carbon offset credits for its forest conservation project of more than 4,400 acres owned and managed by Brookgreen Gardens of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, another historic landmark. The project represented South Carolina’s first carbon credits to be issued through the ARB, a company release said.

"ARB offset credits are issued to projects that meet specific requirements and represent verified greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements. Carbon credits are a component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases. One carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere," the Green Assets announcement on Brookgreen Gardens said.