about

Community Offsets for a Regenerative Economy (CORE) works

A new day calls for a new way. Most of us understand the urgent need to protect the planet that sustains us, yet it is easy to feel sidelined in those efforts. COREworks is a new rural development tool that helps us rise to the challenge with creativity, initiative, and personal responsibility. Our homegrown innovation is a community-based carbon offset marketplace whose proceeds accelerate earth care in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

opportunity

Many of us aspire to live more lightly on and for the Earth. That effort includes reducing the ecological impact of fossil-fuel intensive activities like travel. Eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the goal, but achieving zero carbon is often not possible. That’s where carbon offset marketplaces come in. These enterprises help people balance their own impact with equivalent emission-reducing activity elsewhere. A plane trip to Los Angeles, for example, might be offset with a tree planting project in Brazil.

CONUNDRUM

Many businesses already purchase emission offsets through international carbon exchanges. These marketplaces provide important services, but their large-scale activities are often unconnected to the places we call home. How can rural communities like ours participate in and benefit from the emission-offset economy?  Enter COREworks.

solution

COREworks is a right-sized solution to some big-sized problems — and it works!

  1. Our community-based offset marketplace is by and for local people.
  2. Our donation (vs. purchase) model provides a simpler, motivating way for more of us to get involved.
  3. Our pay-it-forward commitment reinvests 100% of proceeds into funding new projects, thus ensuring program sustainability and growth.

model

How does it all work? For inspiration, we didn’t have to look further than a cornerstone of rural communities: the volunteer fire department. These self-organizing entities protect our well-being and are sustained by community donations. Same with COREworks. Whether you donate generally to the COREworks Fund or offset your own impact ton-for-ton, your support accelerates the launch of new, emissions-reducing projects for Rockbridge County. That’s a win for us all.

financials

COREworks is an initiative of Boxerwood Education Association (BEA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Lexington, Virginia. Donations to BEA as well as COREworks are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.