On the heels of Earth Month, this Saturday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in downtown Durham, 125 Durham Bulls fans will be offered a young Green Giant tree on their way out of the baseball game to take home and plant as a way to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Durham Bulls tree giveaway is designed to promote the carbon offset product offered to all utility customers in North Carolina by NC GreenPower. Carbon offsets are created through projects that mitigate the release of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and offer a way for businesses and residents of North Carolina to reduce their carbon footprint.

NC GreenPower is administering the carbon offset product that allows contributors to purchase a carbon offset for $4 a month, which will offset 500 pounds of carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent through projects such as methane collection and combustion, or forestation. For a typical resident of North Carolina, subscribing to two carbon offset blocks at $8 a month for a year would offset the approximate emissions from driving a mid-sized car 12,000 miles.

A tag explains how much carbon dioxide each tree will offset at maturity and shows a website address for additional information on calculating driving emissions and on how to subscribe to the carbon offset program through NC GreenPower.

The tree giveaway is sponsored by the bioMérieux Green Team, who made a contribution to NC GreenPower on behalf of employees who made a pledge to "Go Green."