M.A. Mortenson Companies, Inc., parent company to Mortenson, to invest $2 million in Virridy for Africa and United States freshwater carbon projects.

Press release excerpt:

“This week, M. A. Mortenson Companies, Inc. signed a carbon credit pre-purchase agreement with Virridy Carbon LLC to enable project capital investment in programs in Rwanda, Kenya, and the United States. The deal will ensure the emissions avoidance of at least 50,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent, generated by either Virridy’s water security projects in eastern Africa or ‘watershed carbon’ river restoration projects in the United States. The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering and Resilience at the University of Colorado Boulder is also engaged in developing elements of these projects with support from the Autodesk Foundation.

In Rwanda Virridy deploys water treatment systems in schools, avoiding the demand for forest fuels to boil contaminated drinking water. This program will reach over 600,000 students by 2025 and is expected to avoid over 200,000 tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030. The Virridy leadership team innovated and demonstrated the first-ever carbon credit for drinking water treatment programs globally, starting in Rwanda in 2007.

In the United States, Virridy is innovating how to connect the global carbon credit market to regulated water treatment obligations. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is funding Virridy to develop a methodology earning carbon credits through installing green infrastructure, like riparian shade and improved agricultural practices, and thereby avoiding the construction and operation of gray infrastructure for water treatment.”

Read the full press release