Join us on the journey of reducing our environmental footprint.
First Light Travel and our sister company New Zealand Trails acknowledge that we need to reduce our environmental footprint. Our carbon measurement and offset program to date has allowed us to plant over 3000 native beach trees.
Beech trees (Nothofagus species) can sequester a significant amount of carbon over their lifetimes. A mature tree can store about 22 kg of CO2 per year on average. Over 300 years, a single tree could sequester approximately:
22 kg/year×300 years=6600 kg CO222 \text{ kg/year} \times 300 \text{ years} = 6600 \text{ kg} \text{ CO2}22 kg/year×300 years=6600 kg CO2
Given 3,000 trees, the total carbon offset would be:
6600 kg/tree×3000 trees=19,800,000 kg CO26600 \text{ kg/tree} \times 3000 \text{ trees} = 19,800,000 \text{ kg} \text{ CO2}6600 kg/tree×3000 trees=19,800,000 kg CO2
Converting this to metric tons (since 1 metric ton = 1,000 kg):
19,800,000 kg÷1000=19,800 metric tons19,800,000 \text{ kg} \div 1000 = 19,800 \text{ metric tons}19,800,000 kg÷1000=19,800 metric tons
So, 3,000 New Zealand beech trees, that grow to 30 meters tall and reach the ripe old age of 300 years, could offset approximately 19,800 metric tons of CO2.
You can opt-in and help for as little as $NZ5pp (US$3) - or not, it's ok, we are going to do it anyway. This year we donated $NZ10.000 (that's 3,333 trees) and volunteered a lot of labor - and we intend to do better next and every other year.
