by Tim Roberts & Seth Williams, founder of MySequesterLast month I came across an innovative internet business that brings dollar benefits to small landholders through linking their tree planting with businesses that need to offset their emissions by purchasing and cancelling carbon offsets or carbon credits. Seth Williams, a remarkable young UON alumnus, has set up a platform that increases the benefits and accessibility of climate change action for landholders and businesses. Seth returned from working in India with a plan to do a tree planting and reforestation project in rural NSW, inspired by the great contrast that he witnessed in India between the environmental destruction and the incredible work done to tackle these issues by the people in the sustainable growth enterprises. He looked at ways in which he could receive funding by linking environmental restoration and carbon offsetting on a small scale, and created MySequester a platform that connects businesses and the community together in an initiative to offset carbon in the atmosphere through tree planting projects. This approach is unique in that it allows people to earn money for tree planting projects of any size without having to commit huge resources to the massively large mainstream offset projects. The MySequester projects are recorded by the tree-planters themselves and then purchased by businesses to offset their carbon emissions. Not only does this open up the carbon market to new groups such as schools and small landholders, but it also has some unique benefits for the organisations that want to reduce their environmental impact.
Organisations and businesses will be able to directly impact their local community, while gaining recognition and exposure for their positive contribution to the environment. In addition to this, MySequester aims to change the lack of transparency and community connection within the carbon offsetting process, by keeping projects within local areas as opposed to remote areas away from businesses and their customers. MySequester has already done many projects in the Newcastle and Hunter Valley Area that support tree planting for schools, farmers and local residents. If you have land you can be paid to plant trees to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Have a look at this great scheme at the Tocal Field Days in the first weekend of May.
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Newcastle Herald
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