Sliced: Pittsburgh Penguins Purchase Over 12,500 City Forest Credits Across Four Regional Projects
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Written by: Jay Tipton
Back in March, we introduced our partnership with City Forest Credits and made the case for why urban forest carbon is one of the most underrated assets in carbon markets.
Well, we have a proud milestone to share.
The Pittsburgh Penguins recently purchased and retired 12,570 tCO2e from City Forest Credits to cover the team’s carbon footprint going back to the 2024-25 season. The deal was facilitated by EQT Corporation as part of the Penguins’ Pledge Net Zero initiative. The credits were priced between $27–$50/tCO2e. Carbon Pulse, Quantum Commodity Intelligence, and cCarbon all picked up the story, so it’s getting some well-deserved attention.
But here’s what’s actually interesting about this deal – the Penguins picked these credits because they were local.
The four forest projects – three in southwestern Pennsylvania and one in northern West Virginia – sit squarely in Penguins country. These are the woods their fans hike through, the green spaces their kids grew up near. Now that’s a carbon credit story people care about!
Two of the projects also happen to carry top-shelf independent ratings, which is a nice bonus.
- The Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area (Allegheny Land Trust, Pittsburgh, PA) earned an ‘A’ from BeZero Carbon – the first and highest-rated avoided deforestation project among 54 BeZero has rated across five continents.
- The Callen Property Project (West Virginia Land Trust, Monongalia County, WV) earned an ‘A’ from Calyx Global.
For context, higher-rated credits now trade at up to 4x the price of lower-rated ones and made up 36% of total retirement value in 2025 which is up from 15% the year before. Quality is increasingly being priced in.
So, what’s still available from the impressive City Forest Credit project portfolio? There is a solid inventory on offer right now – all 2022+ vintage, all independently verified:
Top-Rated Projects
- Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area | Allegheny Land Trust | Pittsburgh, PA | BeZero Carbon ‘A’
- Big Woods Forest Preserve | Triangle Land Conservancy | Chatham County, NC | BeZero Carbon ‘A’
- Anneewakee Forest Preserve | Georgia-Alabama Land Trust | Douglas County, GA | BeZero Carbon ‘BB’
- Callen Property Project | West Virginia Land Trust | Monongalia County, WV | Calyx Global ‘A’
Across CFC’s full portfolio of 65+ projects in 20+ American cities, there are currently 185,000+ avoidance credits and 36,400+ removal credits available today, with further avoidance and removal credits coming online through 2029 vintages.
The Penguins transaction is a template, not a one-off. Sports franchises, retail stores, universities, regional utilities, healthcare systems – any organization with deep roots in a US city has the same opportunity to make their climate commitment feel real and local.
The credits exist. The framework is proven. The forests, as CFC’s founder Mark McPherson likes to say, “won’t wait.”
If your organization wants to explore what a locally-rooted credit strategy looks like, drop me a line at jtipton@gordianknotstrategies.com. Let’s find your forests!
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