Sliced: Turning Urban Forests Into Climate Assets: City Forest Carbon+ Credits For Sale

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We are honored to have been working with City Forest Credits (CFC) over the past year and are thrilled to announce that Gordian Knot Strategies (GKS) is now working with CFC’s Project Operators on their carbon credit commercialization efforts.

City Forest Credits is the only non-profit carbon standard in the United States dedicated exclusively to urban and community forests. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Seattle, CFC has built the first-ever standard for crediting the carbon stored in forests and trees in and around cities and towns.

As CFC Executive Director and Founder, Mark McPherson puts it: “Our tagline is carbon finance for greener, healthier, and more equitable cities. Cities around the world are losing trees and losing canopy just when we need them the most. It’s long overdue for urban forests to come to carbon crediting to help generate funding for this incredibly valuable public resource.”

City Forest Credits holds ICROA endorsement, awarded by the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance, to confirm that CFC meets the highest standards for environmental integrity, transparency, and independent oversight. CFC’s protocols cover two credit types: Tree Preservation (avoided conversion of at-risk urban forest land) and Afforestation & Reforestation (newly planted trees).

The urgency behind CFC’s work is hard to overstate. U.S. cities are losing 36 million trees every year, disadvantaged neighborhoods have 33–65% fewer trees than wealthier areas, and a staggering $18.3 billion in critical ecosystem value is lost annually. This is all while cities allocate just 0.31% of their budgets to urban forestry.

CFC’s Carbon+ Credits are a proven solution, connecting corporate buyers directly to preservation and planting projects in the communities where they operate and delivering quantified co-benefits, including temperature regulation, improved air quality, rainwater management, energy savings, and climate resilience to 20 million+ people across the portfolio. The quantified ecosystem co-benefits of the preservation projects alone are estimated at $116 million over 40 years, with over 3.2 million people living within a 20-minute drive of CFC’s projects.

The CFC portfolio is substantial, growing, and geographically diverse. CFC now has over 65 urban forestry projects across more than 20 American cities, operated by 30 project operators, including land trusts, municipal governments, and conservation groups. Projects span metro areas from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Austin, Seattle, and beyond. Currently, there are over 200,000 avoidance credits and 15,000 removal credits available, all 2022-2026 vintage.

Three standout projects have earned the highest independent quality ratings in their categories from carbon credit ratings agencies BeZero Carbon and Calyx Clobal. These independent agencies, kind of like the S&P or Moody’s of the carbon market, assess whether a project actually delivers the climate benefits it claims. In today’s market, it pays to score well because higher rated credits sometimes now trade at up to 4x the price of lower-rated ones and jumped from 15% to 36% of total retirement value in 2025.

The CFC projects are:

Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area (Allegheny Land Trust, Pittsburgh, PA)

BeZero Carbon “A” rated, placing it in the top 1% of global carbon projects and among only four avoided deforestation projects worldwide to achieve this distinction out of 60+ rated across five continents

Big Woods Forest Preserve (Triangle Land Conservancy, Chatham County, NC)

BeZero Carbon “A” rated, one of only four avoided deforestation projects globally ever to earn BeZero’s highest mark

Callen Property Project (West Virginia Land Trust, Monongalia County, WV)

Calyx Global “A” rated, signifying strong greenhouse gas integrity and a high likelihood that the project delivers the real climate benefits claimed

CFC’s website has also been recently updated with an interactive project map that allows interested buyers to explore each project across the country, see key project details, and view how many credits are available. Combined with CFC’s publicly posted Project Design Documents, Verification Reports, and monitoring data on its registry, buyers have everything they need to conduct thorough due diligence with confidence and ease.

CFC’s credits have already attracted an impressive roster of corporate and mission-driven buyers, including Airbnb, REI, Dominion Energy, the Minnesota Wild, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Buyers like REI and Airbnb are drawn to the local connection. REI purchased credits in the Atlanta area tied to projects near their store, while Airbnb values the urban footprint alignment with where their customers live and travel. Sports teams like the Wild and Penguins see a natural fit in supporting the communities and cities where they play.

McPherson framed the urgency of demand clearly: “If I had my wish, we would find a very brave company that could make a large purchase or give us an advanced market commitment. A signature legacy event that would catalyze hundreds of projects because once those forests are gone, they’re gone forever. And with clear demand, we could help preserve the future parks and nature preserves of our urbanizing cities.”

He also noted that what makes CFC Carbon+ Credits uniquely compelling is not just the carbon unit itself, but the human impact story behind each project: “Can we talk about human lives affected? City Forest Credits is on the cutting edge of making the voluntary carbon market real to people because these are human projects, not just carbon projects.”

If your organization is interested in purchasing City Forest Carbon+ Credits, please reach out to Jay Tipton at Gordian Knot Strategies at jtipton@gordianknotstrategies.com.

Buyers who move early can secure preferred vintage supply, shape project locations, and make a tangible, visible commitment to the communities where they operate. CFC projects are protecting the future parks and nature preserves of an urbanizing America – the same ones that 20+ million people depend on every day. Every credit purchased is a direct investment in keeping them that way.

At Gordian Knot Strategies, our goal is to help mobilize $1 billion per year in climate finance. That is why we’re committed to making climate finance smarter and faster by addressing a broken impact investing screening process. That’s why we built Traro®, a predictive analytics platform designed to help investors rapidly triage opportunities with clarity, consistency, and confidence.

We hosted a live webinar focused on leveraging Traro® for more effective impact investing screening. If you weren’t able to attend, the recording link can be found here.

For those interested in further exploring these best practices, a free guide is available – Smarter Climate Investing: 7 Strategic Filters Before Your First Impact Dollar – which distills actionable lessons learned for screening climate projects using seven essential criteria.

If your organization is interested in seeing Traro® in action, we’d love to show you how it works. Email us at traro@gordianknotstrategies.com. There’s no cost to access the guide or the demo. Our goal is to equip more investors with tools that unlock real climate impact.

Seeking Impact Investment? Submit your project to Traro®

We invite project developers to submit their projects for screening on the Traro® Platform at no cost. Based on assessment outcomes, we can match you with interested impact investors (there is no fee).

You can find more information and how to create an account on Traro® here.

We’re building a global database of impact investors to help mobilize $1 billion annually in climate finance by 2030. If your organization is interested in funding climate or environmental projects, we invite you to fill out our Impact Investor Information Form. Your contact details will remain confidential, and we’ll only connect you with aligned opportunities. There is no fee to participate.

To access the form click here.

Interested in connecting with us on climate finance, impact investment, climate solutions strategy, or carbon credit development and commercialization?

Book a 30-minute conversation with Gordian Knot Strategies here to discuss how we can support your goals.

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