Warehouse operator turns over a new leaf

The stately oak might seem to have little to do with the bustling world of logistics. But trees have a rising profile in supply chain management because they have a hidden superpower—they remove carbon from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. Plants use carbon atoms as the building blocks of every branch, twig, and trunk, which means they could potentially play a key role in helping rebalance global chemistry in our rapidly warming climate.

Now, Link Logistics, a New York-based logistics real estate company, says it plans to leverage that nifty biological capability to help it achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2025. To reach that goal, Link Logistics has pledged $4.75 million to the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy to conserve forests, support family landowners, and combat climate change.

Link’s pledge of nearly $5 million will help enable the creation of carbon removal offsets, which support forest conservation projects that eliminate carbon from the environment. The funds will be used to protect more than 200,000 acres of forests—an area larger than New York City’s five boroughs—and offset approximately 250,000 tons of greenhouse gases over a five-year period.

The initiative was created by the Family Forest Carbon Program, which uses the funding to create carbon removal offsets and to encourage sustainable family forest management. The program aims to remove two gigatons of carbon emissions by the end of the century.