Seattle, Wash. – The Seattle office of Skanska, a leading construction and development firm, will become the first construction company in the United States to offset its entire 2021 construction activity and main office carbon emissions through its participation in Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture (ECC) program. Through this program, Skanska employees will help plant nearly 1,400 trees and the company will contribute more than $60,000 to help fund the purchase and delivery of the trees, as well as support ECC. The large-scale tree-planting initiative will offset Skanska’s estimated 6,850 metric tons of 2021 Washington jobsite carbon emissions in its entirety and will be the first of a two-year carbon mitigation commitment with Forterra.
Skanska calculated its 2021 construction activity carbon emissions from all material deliveries to jobsites across the state, equipment fuel used on those jobsites as well as main office electricity usage.
Forterra, a Washington-based nonprofit land trust, developed the Evergreen Carbon Capture Program to provide opportunities to businesses and individuals to voluntarily mitigate their carbon footprint by facilitating the planting of native conifer trees. Trees are planted as part of forest restoration projects by Forterra and with local stewardship organizations in parks, natural areas, and private lands. As a participating partner, Skanska employees will assist with planting trees at sites throughout the Puget Sound region.
“Skanska is proud to participate in Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture program and assist in their comprehensive habitat restoration efforts,” said Mark Chen, Senior Sustainability Engineer for Skanska Building USA in Washington. “The built environment accounts for nearly 40 percent of carbon emissions globally, and it is a top priority at Skanska to hold ourselves accountable for our carbon footprint and invest our time, energy and resources in programs that help offset our emissions in our ongoing goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. We all need to do our part in combatting climate change, and we are grateful to be part of Forterra’s efforts to create a healthy ecosystem for our communities.”
Skanska’s participation in ECC is one of the many sustainability initiatives the company has implemented globally, nationally, regionally and in the Seattle market. As a longtime leader in sustainable construction and development, Skanska has set an ambitious goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 across its entire operations and value chain.
“We applaud Skanska’s leadership in carbon accountability,” said Skip Swenson, Forterra Vice President of Policy & Programming. “We hope the broader construction sector will follow its lead, recognizing there are local, natural climate solutions that also support our communities.”
In addition to its own aggressive targets for carbon mitigation, Skanska is working to elevate the industry through the development of open-source tools that address embodied and operational carbon in all construction and development projects. From insight and industry tools such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, to the way Skanska runs its jobsites and the actions it takes on all projects, such as Skanska’s recent trial using R99 renewable diesel to fuel a trio of equipment on the Lynnwood Light Rail Extension project, Skanska is helping its customers achieve their own sustainability goals and carbon targets as well.
This and previous releases can also be found at www.usa.skanska.com
LEARN MORE
Forterra’s Evergreen Carbon Capture Program for individuals and businesses.
CONTACTS
Yena Williams, Skanska USA,
213.514.2918
yena.williams@skanska.com
Dan Miller, Curator PR for Skanska
206.979.4055
dan.miller@curatorpr.com
FORTERRA MEDIA CONTACT
Heidi Taffera
Managing Director of Media Relations and Storytelling, Forterra
htaffera@forterra.org
425-269-9981
ABOUT FORTERRA
Forterra is an unconventional land trust that works across Washington’s communities and landscapes, from the ranches and shrub-steppe of the Yakima basin, to the estuaries, farms and forests of Washington’s coast, reaching more than 100 counties, cities, towns and rural communities. Working cooperatively with people and nature, Forterra drives land stewardship, management and planning; innovative programs and policies; farming and forestry approaches; community ownership opportunities; and development solutions.
ABOUT SKANSKA
Skanska is one of the world’s leading construction and development companies. Skanska’s core operations in the U.S. include building construction, civil infrastructure and developing self-financed commercial properties. An industry-leading innovator in both safety and project execution, Skanska offers competitive solutions for traditional and complex assignments that build a more sustainable future for our customers and communities. In 2020, Construction operations in the U.S. generated $6.5 billion in revenue. Skanska’s U.S. commercial development operations has invested a total of $3.2 billion in commercial and multi-family projects, creating more than 10 million-square feet of sustainable and community focused developments in select U.S. markets. With U.S. headquarters in New York City, Skanska has 30 offices with 7,600 employees nationwide. Global revenue of parent company Skanska AB, headquartered in Stockholm and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, totaled approximately $17.2 billion in 2020.
