613 living trees

14 living trees

14 living trees




TREES NEEDED

- AAA says the average American drives 29.2 miles per day. (source) That's 61.32 pounds of CO2. (source)
- There are lots of kinds of trees with varying capacity to absorb CO2 and different lifespans and such, so we assumed the average tree absorbs 1750 pounds of CO2 over the course of a 50 year lifespan: 35 pounds per year, 0.10 pounds per day. (source)
- This means the average American driver needs a forest of 613 trees to absorb or offset the CO2 emitted by driving a car.
- If the average cyclist rides 12 miles per day, they will produce 1.44 pounds of CO2.
- A person walking 8 miles per day will also produce 1.44 pounds of CO2.
- Each of these people will require 14 living trees to offset their daily carbon footprint of transportation.



Please note: not all sources come up with exactly the same numbers, so we have tried to be conservative when choosing data points. Also we have made some minor tweaks when appropriate based on our own experience and our knowledge of our customers at Recovery Bike Shop (ex. most of our staff commute exclusively by bike). Having said that, almost all of the research agrees: driving a low occupancy vehicle produces several times the carbon dioxide pollution of riding a bike.