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

Sep 16, 2026 1:22 pm

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.

Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing solu­tions that can be scaled glob­al­ly. Its unique water­front envi­ron­ment com­ple­ments an award-win­ning park engi­neered for cli­mate change; near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors; oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion, research, and pilot­ing; pub­lic art­works engag­ing with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants focused on cli­mate solu­tions — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, NYU Gal­latin Wet­Lab, and the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs. 

The Trust and the New York City Mayor’s Office have devel­oped a vision to cre­ate the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, an ini­tia­tive on Gov­er­nors Island to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions for cities. In April 2023, The New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a con­sor­tium of part­ners, was select­ed as the initiative’s anchor insti­tu­tion fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process. The Exchange will devel­op a $700-mil­lion cam­pus on the Island focused on advanc­ing cli­mate solu­tions and prepar­ing New York­ers for green jobs, expect­ed to open in 2029.

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate pro­grams are sup­port­ed by Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust, and Anonymous.

The Gov­er­nors Island 2026 sea­son is gen­er­ous­ly sup­port­ed by the Black­stone Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, and Riv­ian Foundation.

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About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www​.gov​is​land​.org