Chevrolet Successfully Completes Historic Carbon Reduction Initiative; Achieves Largest North America Environmental Carbon Reduction Program to Date

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) announces that it has successfully helped Chevrolet achieve its five-year Carbon Reduction Initiative (CRI) goal to reduce greenhouse gas (measured as carbon dioxide or CO₂) emissions on behalf of the environment. To date, Chevrolet has invested approximately $40 million in carbon-reducing projects in communities across the country. As a result, BEF successfully retired 8,068,681 metric tons of carbon reductions on behalf of Chevrolet, surpassing an 8 million ton goal. This is equivalent to planting a forest the size of Yellowstone National Park.

"This is the largest voluntary carbon purchase and reduction program to take place in the United States," noted BEF CEO, Todd Reeve. He added, "What's particularly inspiring is the diversity of projects supported by Chevrolet, including a new protocol developed through this program that creates carbon credits from higher education campuses, many of which will continue their projects well into the future."

The initiative supported 38 carbon-reducing projects from 29 states across the U.S. including: forest conservation and management, utility-scale wind energy, waste heat recovery, landfill methane destruction, energy efficiency upgrades in low-income housing, nitrogen destruction, prairieland conservation, trucking fleet efficiency, anti-idle technology, coal-bed methane capture, refrigerant leak detection/prevention, and university campus clean energy and efficiency.

The initiative also supported renewable energy education through the Solar 4R Schools (S4RS) program in partnership with Chevrolet dealerships with on-site solar located in Northern California. Some 100 educators have received renewable energy-based STEM training and classroom resources through this program and will utilize the real-time solar data from these Chevrolet systems through the S4RS.org site.

"We take great pride in what we have accomplished for the environment through this partnership with Chevrolet," remarked Reeve. "The legacy of this program through Solar 4R Schools and the campus carbon methodology will continue to provide positive impacts for years to come."

Carbon credits for this program were transacted through BEF on behalf of the environment for the Chevrolet Carbon Reduction Initiative and verified under the leading certifications including American Carbon Registry (ACR), Climate Action Reserve (CAR) and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and permanently retired using carbon registries including APX and Markit.

To learn about Chevrolet's Carbon Reduction Initiative, visit http://www.chevrolet.com/culture/article/carbon-footprint-reduction.html. To learn about BEF, visit www.b-e-f.org.

ABOUT BONNEVILLE ENVIRONMENTAL FOUNDATION (BEF)
A national nonprofit, BEF empowers businesses to be in balance with the environment through a full suite of environmental products, educational and community engagement programs and custom solutions that help our partners address their unavoidable energy, carbon and water impacts. We align our partners' goals with our extensive industry expertise to achieve immediate results today while helping solve tomorrow's biggest environmental challenges. We thrive on bringing game-changing ideas to market, including: helping to start the voluntary renewable energy credit (REC) market; creating the first voluntary water restoration product (WRC); helping launch the first community-funded solar project in the nation; co-creating the Change the Course water sustainability campaign; and building the nation's most comprehensive K-12 renewable energy STEM education program, Solar 4R Schools. Learn more at www.b-e-f.org.

SOURCE Bonneville Environmental Foundation

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