Notes from the field: Visiting two carbon projects in the rural Southeast

One of my favorite parts of working in climate is getting out of the office and actually visiting our projects in person. Seeing the impact up close, talking with project owners, and getting to know the land and the communities that live there is irreplaceable, and a reminder of why we do what we do.

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This summer, I went to visit the developers of two of our high-quality projects, located in Louisiana and Arkansas: NativState, which has multiple forest projects throughout the southeast, and PermCap GHG Solutions, which plugs orphan and abandoned oil and gas wells.

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NativState: Protecting the forest from logging

NativState conserves tens of thousands of acres of bottomland hardwood forest in the Mississippi Delta, working with landowners to keep forests standing that would otherwise be logged. Managing a forest is constant, physical work, and we saw it up close – the crew out in the summer heat, thinning the forest for optimal tree growth.

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In addition to the carbon benefit, the forest gives local communities improved recreational opportunities through enhanced biodiversity and wildlife habitats, and acts as a natural flood barrier for communities downstream. The forest also contributes to improved mental and physical health benefits for residents through better air and water quality. Carbon revenue also gives small landowners a way to cover property taxes and family expenses without clear-cutting. And these landowners can be quite compelling. For instance, one enrolled landowner, the Morehouse Parish School Board, can now keep its forest intact for the long term, rather than harvesting it for immediate income.

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PermCap: Plugging wells that have been leaking for decades

In Caddo Parish, Louisiana, PermCap is working on something entirely different, but with equally strong environmental and local benefits. Louisiana has thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells: inactive wells with no responsible owner left to plug them. Many leak methane and other poisonous gases, which can trap 80x more heat than carbon dioxide, and can pose risks to groundwater. The state lacks the funding to address this problem, and no Louisiana regulations require the wells to be plugged. Driving across the region, we passed hundreds of small wells still running because they provide income to the local economy.

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The PermCap project I visited has permanently plugged four of these wells, with lasting benefits for the surrounding community and environment. Nearby families are now safer and no longer face toxic air, water, and soil. Beyond methane abatement, plugging these wells reduces ground-level ozone pollution, protects water from contamination, and reduces the risk of explosions in populated areas. The project also significantly reduces the release of toxic chemicals like benzene and arsenic that are common in older wells. Many orphaned wells sit in rural, economically disadvantaged communities that have seen years of divestment, and plugging them creates good-paying jobs and spurs economic revitalization for the region.

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The Hyperion data center

The visit was timely, because everyone was talking about what was happening next door. Nearby in Richland Parish, Meta is building Hyperion, its largest data center to date. This places the community squarely in the midst of one the hottest topics in the world today.

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The project developers and community members we spoke with were actually generally positive about the opportunities and investment flowing into the region. And they recognized that it created a further opportunity for Meta to invest in the climate work happening right around it.

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Opportunities for hyper-local investment

In Louisiana, Meta has funded the restoration of a 316-acre pasture to native forest and wetland habitat to improve water quality in a nearby watershed, signaling a priority to invest in the local region, especially given recent public pushback. While data centers are wrestling with the massive carbon footprint from construction and the operational energy it takes to run them, we hope they recognize that carbon credits can be a part of the solution.

Carbon projects like NativState and PermCap create additional opportunities for data centers to address unavoidable emissions while delivering co-benefits for the communities around them, from water filtration and cleaner groundwater to wildlife habitat protection and increased economic opportunities for forestry and oilfield crews. With investments in hyperlocal carbon projects, data center developers and operators can contribute to the climate and the community at the same time.

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How CNaught can help

We vet and invest in projects like these on behalf of our customers, and we'd love to share what we learned on the ground. To learn more about the projects we support, or to explore what local investment could look like for your own footprint, reach out to our team.