Volkswagen Partners with Carbonfund.org for Green Motoring
Volkswagen of America, Inc., in its solid commitment for greener motoring, has duly announced this August 30 that it has forged a partnership with known environmentalist, Carbonfund.org. With this affiliation, Volkswagen’s primary aim is to offset one year of Carbon emissions from each new Volkswagen vehicle sold in the United States for the period of September 1, 2007 through January 2, 2008.
As a means to make light on this alliance, Adrian Hallmark, Executive Vice President of Volkswagen of America, has this to attest: “We developed this partnership to help bring our customers to the forefront of environmental initiatives. Vehicles are an important and necessary part of our society, but there are actions we can all take to help ensure a cleaner environment for future generations.”
Hallmark further continued, “”We hope that Volkswagen’s investment will serve as a catalyst to involve our owners and create awareness beyond our defined contribution.”
Volkswagen chose the non-profit organization Carbonfund.org due to its famous dedication in finding feasible ways and solutions to climate change. And in reference to their combined efforts and deliberations, Volkswagen’s goal of offsetting carbon emissions was finally decided to be through a land reforestation project in the Northern Louisiana region, more specifically the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV). The said valley, initially a wetland ecosystem that had been largely converted to farmland over the years, is estimated to be reforested by Volkswagen with over 250,000 native trees, equivalent to a carbon reduction of roughly about 372,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide. Indeed, this is a very massive and revolutionary aid to the ailing environment, as this program hits about five birds in one stone. Not only does this program delivers its main goal of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it also reclaims the barren pastureland, restores native trees to its natural habitat, provides additional source of food for the local wildlife, and increases water safety.
For newbies on environmental solutions, a reforestation program is a form of Carbon Dioxide trapping within another structure besides the atmosphere. Unlike in the air environment, trees actually benefit from Carbon Dioxide as such compounds are stored in the trees’ bulky mass and surrounding soil. Incidentally, the climate and soils of the LMA valley have one of the highest carbon absorption rates in the United States, with a staggering 450 tons of absorbed carbon dioxide per acre as compared to the measly average of 170 tons per acre for other international land projects.
In reference to Carbonfund.org’s participation in this most welcome project, the organization’s Executive Director Eric Carlson is pleased to announce: “Carbonfund.org is a non-profit organization supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects globally that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the threat of climate change. We are proud of this new partnership with Volkswagen of America, which is the first time a car company and its community of owners have mobilized on this scale to offset carbon emissions and reduce their climate footprint.”
Indeed, Volkswagen is dead serious in helping the environment fight its lethal pollutants. As a result, besides the esteemed carbon offsetting campaign, Volkswagen has again partnered with Carbonfund.org in other ecological-friendly vehicle programs. For their next projects, Volkswagen and Carbonfund.org are already in the planning stage to offset carbon emissions at a car test drive program at the Teva Mountain Games, as well as for an upcoming Clean Diesel marketing tour. The said tour is specifically aimed at educating the buying public about the various benefits of utilizing Clean Diesel and Volkswagen’s alternative fuel strategy.