Cabarrus Today

The City of Concord, in collaboration with the Creation Care team at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, the Arbor Day Foundation, and Carolina Power Partners, is set to distribute 300 free trees through the Energy-Saving Trees program. This marks Concord's fifth consecutive year participating in the initiative, being the first municipality in North Carolina to join.

As part of North Carolina’s public power communities, Concord has partnered with Carolina Power Partners to increase the number of trees available this year. The city aims to enhance its tree canopy while aiding homeowners in reducing their energy costs. Homeowners and customers of Concord Electric Systems can reserve a tree online at arborday.org/concord on a first-come, first-served basis. The selection includes Red Maple, Bald Cypress, Shumard Oak, Tulip Poplar, and Sourwood.

Trees are scheduled for pickup on Saturday, October 21st at All Saints’ Episcopal Church located at 525 Lake Concord Rd NE from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Homeowners can reserve one tree per household to be planted strategically using an online mapping tool that optimizes air, water, energy savings, and carbon benefits. Properly placed trees can cut down household energy consumption for heating and cooling by up to 25 percent.

In the previous year, 200 native trees were distributed by the City of Concord and All Saints’ Episcopal Church. These trees are projected over two decades to save 479,112 kWh of energy, sequester 960,668 pounds of carbon dioxide, absorb 1,627 pounds of air pollutants and filter more than four million gallons of stormwater runoff.

Over four years since the program began in Concord, a total of 979 free trees have been distributed. If all these trees were planted and survived for twenty years as anticipated outcomes suggest nearly two million kWh energy saved; over three million pounds carbon sequestered; more than six thousand pounds air pollutants absorbed; fifteen million gallons stormwater runoff filtered; resulting combined benefits exceeding $380 thousand dollars.