Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces Part­ner­ship with Chest­nut to Pilot Envi­ron­men­tal Mon­i­tor­ing Tech­nol­o­gy

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today a new part­ner­ship with Chest­nut Car­bon, who will test and demon­strate their nature-based car­bon removal solu­tion on Gov­er­nors Island as part of the Trust’s Cli­mate Pilot­ing Pro­gram. The Trust’s pro­gram allows cli­mate tech inno­va­tors from across New York City to uti­lize the Island’s built, social, and nat­ur­al envi­ron­ments to show­case their prod­ucts, gath­er data, engage with the pub­lic, scale their solu­tions, and ulti­mate­ly help to advance New York City’s lead­er­ship in cli­mate action.

“Chest­nut Car­bon sup­ports the restora­tion and con­ser­va­tion of forest­land across the coun­try for long-term car­bon seques­tra­tion, enabled by their unique tech­nol­o­gy and inno­v­a­tive busi­ness mod­el,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re proud to serve as a pilot site in a beloved pub­lic space where Chest­nut can sup­port the Trust in mon­i­tor­ing seques­tra­tion by its young urban for­est in Ham­mock Grove.”

“As a New York-based com­pa­ny, we’re proud to part­ner with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island to sup­port cli­mate inno­va­tion right here in our home­town,” said Sarah Ford, Chief Forestry Offi­cer. ​“This pilot will deep­en our under­stand­ing of car­bon seques­tra­tion and ecosys­tem ben­e­fits in an urban for­est set­ting while advanc­ing the sci­ence of nature-based car­bon removal. We’re excit­ed to con­tribute to Gov­er­nors Island’s role as a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry for cli­mate solutions.”

Although forests are one of the most effec­tive car­bon removal sys­tems on the plan­et, mea­sur­ing and ver­i­fy­ing their cli­mate impact remains a crit­i­cal bar­ri­er to scal­ing invest­ment in nature-based car­bon removal solu­tions. Chest­nut Car­bon strives to solve this prob­lem by sup­port­ing long-term for­est restora­tion and con­ser­va­tion, with research plots and project sites estab­lished in 37 states.

On Gov­er­nors Island, Chest­nut is demon­strat­ing how nature-based car­bon removal works in an urban set­ting. Togeth­er with the Trust’s hor­ti­cul­ture and land­scap­ing teams, they have estab­lished sev­er­al research plots in Ham­mock Grove, a 10-acre exper­i­men­tal urban for­est with more than 1,300 trees. From 2026 to 2028, Chest­nut will use their pilot to study native species per­for­mance and car­bon seques­tra­tion poten­tial using advanced mon­i­tor­ing tech­nolo­gies, giv­ing an accu­rate pic­ture of these trees’ impact on the Island envi­ron­ment. In addi­tion, they will part­ner with the Trust to plant sev­er­al new chest­nut trees in Ham­mock Grove.

The Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate Pilot­ing Pro­gram offers ear­ly-stage com­pa­nies and inno­va­tors the oppor­tu­ni­ty to test and scale cli­mate prod­ucts and ser­vices in a real-world envi­ron­ment. Since its launch in 2023, the pro­gram has advanced more than two dozen projects relat­ed to nature-based solu­tions, liv­ing shore­lines, clean water, cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, build­ings, ener­gy, air qual­i­ty, and urban agri­cul­ture — open­ing doors to new cus­tomers, sup­pli­ers, tal­ent, investors, and pub­lic agency partnerships.

Read More on The Governor’s Island Blog.