Party Vibe

Trees, the eco-investment of choice. But now campaigners question forests firm

Company defends ‘carbon neutral’ concept backed by Labour and Tories

Hugh Muir
Thursday September 30, 2004
The Guardian

For the rock star, politician or worried citizen anxious to join the war on global pollution, it is the solution of choice. Music giants such as the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Dido and MTV, as well as firms such as Volvo and British Telecom, wear it as a modern badge of honour.
Last week Labour and the Tories joined the virtuous circle, announcing that their campaigns for next year’s general election would be “carbon neutral”.

The body at the centre of the phenomenon is a private firm called Future Forests, the market leader in helping companies and individuals become more environmentally friendly. The company offers advice on how to reduce your emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas. It also allows you to “trade” your emissions by investing in climate-friendly technology and forestry, on the principle that trees soak up CO 2 and thus offset the pollution you have caused.

But the Guardian has learned that the company is being accused by other green campaigners of being less eco-friendly than it claims. Trading standards officers in London are investigating a formal complaint which accuses Future Forests of investing too little of the money it raises in planting trees.

The complaint, from the charity Trees for Cities, points out that fans on the Rolling Stones website are encouraged to pay £8.50 to plant a tree but notes that Future Forests does not itself plant any trees at all. Instead, the charity claims, it relies on landowners who do the planting on the company’s behalf, yet are paid only a fraction of the donated money.

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Trees for Cities says the public is given the impression that donations lead directly to the planting of new saplings when what often occurs is the purchase of “carbon sequestration” rights – a payment related to the future carbon storing potential of the trees.

The charity alleges that in some cases the trees have already been planted or were funded from other sources, such as the Forestry Commission, and would probably have existed without the intervention of Future Forests and its high-profile clients.

The complaint, submitted by Trees for Cities chief executive Graham Simmonds and received by trading standards officers in Camden, north London – where Future Forests has its registered head office – outlines the charity’s belief that, “if fans of the Rolling Stones, and other members of the public, knew that their money was being used to buy the carbon sequestration rights in trees that are being planted largely with public funding and that only around 40-45p of their £10 or £8.50 pay ment was being passed on to the woodland owner by Future Forests, then they would feel that this is a very different proposition to paying to plant a tree”.

A spokesman for Future Forests said the company will mount a vigorous defence of its operation. But it will do so in the face of other criticisms from campaigners who have also voiced fundamental concerns.

Pauline Buchanan Black, of the Tree Council, an umbrella group of 150 organisations, which often acts as a government adviser, said: “Members say they have been approached for the sale of carbon rights which is different to planting trees and sometimes those trees have been planted with resources from other sources. On their website they talk of planting trees and say they have helped to plant over 90 forests. Our members are very concerned that they are not planting trees.”

She added: “It is not practical for people to investigate the chapter and verse of where their money goes so I understand why they have decided to give to Future Forests. But I think it is unfortunate that they don’t go with a not-for-profit organisation rather than a private, for-profit company.”

Other campaigners are concerned about the idea that emissions of carbon can be offset by tree planting. Bryony Worthington, a climate change campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: “We don’t think it is an adequate response to climate change to encourage tree planting. What Future Forests offer is a way of calculating emissions which is useful but then they say you can salve your conscience and have a carbon neutral lifestyle by planting trees. We have an objection in principle to the whole concept.”

She said the decision of the Labour party and the Tories to endorse the concept was worrying: “Planting a few trees is sending out the wrong message.”

Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace, said their concerns embrace science but also public policy. “We would be concerned if tree planting being used as a way of making yourself carbon neutral blunted the edge of trying to tackle emissions at source through renewable energy or energy efficiency.”

A spokesman for Future Forests said they sought first to reduce emissions and then to offset those which are unavoidable. “On the website we make it clear that we are a climate change company. You are buying into the climate change message rather than a tree planting message. It talks about tree planting because it is part of the process for sequestration of CO 2 .”

He added: “We have a range of planting companies that we work with to plant trees for us. We work closely with planting companies and ensure to the highest standards we can that the money we will put in encourages additional activity. There are going to be some questions about it but we are doing rigorous checks.”

Addressing claims that deals have been struck which do not lead to the planting of additional trees, he said: “I cannot say it has never been the case but it is something we look into very strongly.”

He said trees were a small part of the company’s activity, which also encompasses renewable energy and climate technology products. But they were an important public face for their work. “Climate change is a very nebulous subject that is hard to get people engaged in,” he said. “Trees are a huge icon people can relate to.”

The spokesman said a breakdown of how the company spends its money was on its website for all to see: “Money goes to the partners and the verification and monitoring and overheads.”

The company’s website says up to a third of all contributions go directly to environmental projects. “Future Forests will only support projects that would otherwise not have taken place.” The world of green politics was not always a harmonious one, according to the spokesman. “There is a lot of infighting within climate changes circles that we don’t want to get involved in.”

Sixty Stones fans = one tree

Rolling Stones
British dates on the Stones’ Licks world tour last year were billed as “carbon neutral”. The level of emissions from the nine dates were calculated as part of a deal between the band and Future Forests. The company worked with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management to assess the emission rate for touring, with venue size, distance between gigs and fan travel taken into account. It was calculated that planting and maintaining one tree for every 60 fans would be sufficient to make the tour dates carbon neutral

Joe Strummer
Fans are able to make a £17 “dedication” to a sapling in Rebels Wood on the isle of Skye in memory of former Clash star Joe Strummer, who was a friend of Dan Morell, the company’s founder. Future Forests say they have planted 50 trees there

Dido
With the words, “trees are the lungs of the world, and it’s our responsibility to put back what we’ve taken away”, the singer Dido has urged her fans to get involved in planting trees to offset CO 2 . Her website entry refers to her links with a community project in Mozambique and says: “Dido has planted trees to ‘neutralise’ the CO 2 emissions that were given off as a result of producing her new album”

David Gray
With the release of his album A New Day at Midnight, David Gray made a contribution to Future Forests. Devotees were able to dedicate a £10 tree in the star’s “Fan Forest” in Lincolnshire