Every time you drive, fly or use energy from fossil fuels like oil and coal, you contribute carbon dioxide to the atmosphere that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Buying carbon credits lets you neutralize your contribution. Credits pay for projects that absorb the carbon (like tree planting) or reduce fossil fuel burning (like energy-efficient solar hot water systems). Those projects take out the carbon for you, as much as you need and whenever you need it.
Why local? Most carbon credit programs send your money out of the community, to projects happening somewhere else. The Local Trust keeps 100 percent of your money in your community, where it supports the local economy, creates green-collar jobs and builds green spaces you can see and use yourself.
Adult mesquite trees can each store over 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. Because some of the trees we plant may not survive to adulthood (as much as 40%), we calculate an average of 4,513 pounds of CO2 per tree, or just over 2 metric tons.
COMING SOON! Why water heaters? A solar water heater is powered by the sun’s rays instead of fossil fuels, saving around 2,900 kWh yearly for a standard sized unit. That’s 5,800 pounds of carbon dioxide in Arizona, where every kWh puts 2 lbs of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So, over its 25-year lifespan, a single solar heater will spare the planet 145,000 pounds, or 66 metric tons, of CO2. That’s a serious carbon credit.
We’re looking for a few good people. First responders, teachers, community organizers—if you serve your community, we want to serve you. We will install a solar hot water heater in your home, so you can save on utilities and help make Tucson a sustainable city. It’s just one way The Local Trust, a new kind of carbon credit program, gives back to the community.
To learn more about this opportunity, call us at 520-271-8686 or email info@gsa-usa.org
A locally-based carbon credit program
We offer carbon credits that put your money to work right where you live.
» calculate your carbon «
When you buy credits through The Local Trust, you support local nonprofits. People in your own hometown building more energy-efficient housing, planting trees or training others for green-collar jobs. Your money stays in your community and makes things happen there.
What we offer
- Neutralizing credits to offset your travel, whether you flew to a ski resort or drove to the trailhead.
- Regeneration credits that go beyond your footprint, so you don’t just keep a zero balance—you help rebuild a healthy world.
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Tucson Audubon
urban bird habitat
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Our projects
Tucson Audubon urban bird habitat: we’ve partnered with Tucson Audubon to increase urban habitat for birds that are at risk. Along with native trees the Local Trust provides, Tucson Audubon plants other vegetation for specific WatchList birds like Gilded Flicker, Costa's Hummingbird and Lucy's Warbler. The neighborhood can also enjoy the park.
Green Schools: we plant native trees around school playgrounds and building in Tucson, irrigated with harvested rainwater. The trees shade the children as they play, keep buildings cool in the summer, and help Tucson’s urban heat island, all while sequestering carbon from the air.
To join us in fighting climate change through local action, buy carbon credits now to help our Tucson projects. Or check back with us to see when The Local Trust will come to your community!
Local Trust founders
David Schaller led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s sustainability efforts in the West and Pacific Islands for over a decade. GSA-USA president Jane Poynter has worked with the World Bank on projects to mitigate global climate change and developed carbon credit programs in accordance with the United Nations Kyoto Protocol.
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