In June of 2024, Be Zero Carbon asked Reel Quest to accompany staff for three days as they visited forestry sites across New England, and to create photo and video assets that could be used by their in-house media team to help tell their story. This was mostly a run and gun shoot with only one of us (Jerry) on-site, schlepping gear through the woods while switching back and forth between shooting stills and video. He also captured a few formal interviews over the course of the three days, as well as drone and ground-level stills of New England forests for BeZero’s photo archive.

Trading carbon credits is one tool being used as an attempt to reduce carbon emissions in the fight against climate change. In a carbon market, a carbon emitter can offset their emissions by buying carbon “credits” from on organization that is sequestering carbon, usually through sustainable forest management. Be Zero is a carbon ratings agency, based in the UK, which rates carbon projects – determining the probability a specific carbon project will meet its goal using a host of tools. You can learn more about their approach on their website here: https://bezerocarbon.com/ratings/approach

BeZero rates carbon projects all over the globe and this field visit was a chance for their data analysts and rating experts to get on the ground and see firsthand how forests are managed in New England. BeZero’s communications team has since used the photos and videos from this shoot in multiple ways, including in a pair of YouTube videos which we’ve embedded here.

Learn More: To see an example of a conservation project in New England that uses carbon credits, check out this project we filmed in 2021 in Hancock, Maine: https://reelquestfilms.com/project/northeast-wilderness-trust-wildlands-partnership/

You can see more photos from the shoot on Jerry’s EcoPhotography.com blog.