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Vaughan Andrews, senior manager, sustainability, speaks on a panel at Climate Week.

is one of the most important climate gatherings of the year, attracting business executives, elected leaders, environmental policymakers, nonprofit representatives, sustainability professionals and others for a week of discussions around the global response to climate change. This year, more than 100,000 attendees fanned out across New York City to attend more than 1,500 events held from Sept. 20 to 27. 

Members of ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ’s Sustainability and Strategic Land Solutions teams were again active participants and continued to build on our level of engagement and reach. 

“Every engagement we did this year was earned,” says Sarah Fulcher, director of carbon marketing, who has coordinated ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ’s presence at Climate Week NYC since 2024. “We’ve gone from attending to influencing the agenda around working forests as climate solutions — and that’s important because the markets and policies for these solutions are shaped by weeks like this and the conversations that are happening at various events around the city.” 

Our Climate Week NYC experience has evolved significantly since we started participating. We first attended in 2023, the same week we announced the approval of our first forest carbon project in Maine. In that initial engagement, our goal was primarily to raise awareness for working forests as climate solutions and introduce new audiences to ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ’s forest carbon potential. Our message that year: We need all ideas and climate solutions on the table, working forests included. We were newcomers, and while our message resonated with those who heard it, we didn’t have the platform or event history for it to spread organically. 

But we showed up again the next year, and the year after that, each time with more to say, higher visibility and more tangible progress to report. We joined the call for greater integrity in the voluntary carbon market and went a step further by publishing the core principles that guide our approach to carbon credits. Next, we published the greenhouse gas inventory principles we use to account for the carbon impact of our entire portfolio of forests and forest products. These principles provided clear, science-based guidelines for industry peers to follow. 

We backed our principles with real projects, securing approvals for our first forest carbon projects in the U.S. South and developing a pipeline of the same high-integrity projects we’d called for just a few years earlier. We also advanced numerous renewable energy projects, entered into significant conservation agreements and launched a joint venture to rapidly scale the market for biocarbon. Each year, our partner network has grown. More people recognize ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ and, more importantly, know why we are there. This year, when our team met to map out our Climate Week NYC schedule, all but one of our engagements came via invitation. 

This year’s Climate Week NYC contingent included Ara Erickson, vice president, corporate sustainability; Alicia Robbins, vice president, climate solutions and business development; Jason Gibson, director, forest carbon; Vaughan Andrews, senior manager, sustainability; and Sarah Fulcher, director of carbon marketing. They engaged in nearly a dozen speaking events over four days and crisscrossed the city for partner meetings, small-group discussions and networking events focused on advancing ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ’s positive climate impact through our business and sustainability initiatives. 

One of the highlights was a panel discussion at the International Sustainable Forestry Coalition Symposium hosted by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® on Sept. 22, titled “Financing Forests: Certification as the Bridge to Investment and Nature Disclosure.” Vaughan was one of four panelists invited to discuss the connections between forest certification, nature disclosures and investment. 

“The global investment community is increasingly asking what the impact of forest management is on nature,” he says. “We’ve found that many of the questions being asked of companies in nature-related disclosures are overly broad, and my point on the panel was that we need to be starting from a place that recognizes the strength of forest certification and the decades of work that have been done to ensure sustainable forest management can balance the needs of society, nature and the communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods.” 

Another high point of the week was a breakfast we hosted with our partner, Relae, on Sept. 24, during which Alicia and Jason led a roundtable discussion about designing high-integrity Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects. Attendees shared their thoughts on trends in the category and how the next generation of IFM projects are being shaped by the market and vice versa. 

Jason Gibson, director, forest carbon, on a panel about the importance of carbon removals.

For us, this was more than a hypothetical discussion. ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ has been among the industry leaders in developing high-integrity forest carbon projects for the voluntary market in the U.S. We have five IFM projects issuing credits, including four in the South. Three of our southern projects were recently recognized as among the best in their class by BeZero Carbon, a leading credit ratings agency. And we have several more projects under development. 

“There is no regulator in the voluntary market,” Sarah says. “It is being defined and built as it’s growing, and we are in a real transition period right now. Customers are expecting a higher bar for quality, and the market has made meaningful strides — and that’s a good thing. Now the question developers and others in the market are working to address is: What is good enough? And what do good, better, and best-in-class look like after that?” 

In addition to those two events: 

• Alicia participated in a panel hosted by The Nature Conservancy that focused on advancing climate-smart forestry outcomes, and she joined a Goldman Sachs-hosted dinner conversation about how sustainability strategies and corporate resilience efforts can attract and retain investor attention; 

• Ara joined a panel discussion hosted by the Nature4Climate Coalition that explored how various markets and financing mechanisms can support the ongoing wildfire resilience efforts for forests and rural communities; 

• Jason joined a panel workshop hosted by SCS Global Services that highlighted the ongoing importance of carbon reductions, even as removals gain favor; 

• Sarah co-hosted a roundtable with BeZero Carbon that brought together buyers and sellers to discuss key questions and challenges in developing carbon markets; and 

• Vaughan participated in a strategic workshop hosted by the Science for High Integrity Frameworks to Transform Carbon Markets and spoke on a panel hosted by the Climate Contribution Framework about how investors should assess a company’s climate action in more ways than simply their efforts to reduce emissions. 

Vaughan walks Climate Week participants through our Climate Solutions business.

Beyond the visibility of high-profile events and speaking opportunities, Climate Week NYC provided our team opportunities to reconnect in person with important partners and influential decision makers. These are the nonprofit organizations, policymakers, industry peers and others who share our sustainability value and our interest in elevating and unlocking the role of working forests in the response to climate change. 

“There is no substitute for intentional in-person time with partners, spent in a room hashing out a complicated topic, or sharing a meal, to build the relationships and the trust that are necessary to navigate this evolving market and to accomplish the shared goals of advancing climate action,” Vaughan says. 

It’s a moment that is becoming more important every year as we continue to establish ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ’s presence as a leader in delivering climate solutions. 

“Three years ago, we were identifying who our audience was and what rooms we needed to be in,” Sarah says. “Now, we are helping shape and lead discussions on important topics with key partners and target audiences to inform the future market for climate solutions.”