Overview

Conservation practices store carbon in the soil and plants that would otherwise form carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Manure digesters produce energy and prevent methane from being released to the atmosphere. Both carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases that contribut to global climate change.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®) allows greenhouse gas benefits from conservation practices to be quantified, credited and sold. The credits are aggregated, or pooled, from many different producers and landowners in order to sell them to CCX® members that have made voluntary committments to reduce their greenhouse gas contributions. CCX® members include large companies, municipalities, and institutions, and they must either reduce their emissions or mitigate their emissions through the purchase of credits.

Delta Carbon provides an additional financial incentive for farmers and landowners to use conservation practices that also benefit the environment by creating wildlife habitat and limiting soil and nutrient run-off to streams and lakes. The Delta Institute is a non-profit organization that is serving as a carbon offset aggregator.

About the Delta Institute and P2E2 Center

The Delta Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in 1998 to work on environmental quality and community economic development projects in Illinois and the Great Lakes region. The Delta Institute trades carbon credits on the CCX® and is an aggregator on the exchange. The Delta Institute trades carbon credits on the CCX® trading platform through its limited liability corporation called the Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency Center, LLC.