Living Carbon Announces New Carbon Offtake Agreements with Symbiosis

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2026 - Living Carbon announces new long-term carbon removal agreements with Symbiosis Coalition. Through the agreements, Symbiosis members Google, McKinsey, and Meta have contracted 131,240 tonnes of carbon removal from Living Carbon over 10 years, supporting large-scale reforestation on degraded lands in the Appalachian Region of the United States. This is the second project announced under Symbiosis' first joint Request for Proposals (RFP), focused on reforestation and agroforestry projects that could deliver over 500,000 tonnes of removal over 10 years. 

‍Restoring Degraded Lands in Appalachia

‍1.6 million acres of abandoned mine lands across the United States suffer from poor soil quality, erosion, toxic metal content, and invasive species that prevent natural regeneration, with Central Appalachia particularly impacted by decades of coal mining. Similarly, approximately 30 million acres of abandoned agricultural land across the United States could be restored through reforestation. 

The Living Carbon project will plant native species of hardwood and pine on former mine lands and degraded agricultural lands in the Appalachian region – many of which have remained ecologically and economically underutilized for decades. The project combines strategic reforestation, intensive site preparation, and invasive species control to facilitate natural regeneration and deliver measurable carbon removal. 

In addition to the carbon removal impact, the Living Carbon project provides other benefits such as improved soil and water health, enhanced biodiversity and economic development. By reintroducing native tree species, the project improves habitats for the local plants and wildlife. 

The project also provides new economic development opportunities for local communities. Landowners who partner with Living Carbon receive lease payments for otherwise unproductive and highly degraded lands. Living Carbon also works with local communities on land restoration, providing jobs and repurposing tools and machinery that had previously been used for mining for ecological recovery. 

"Our support of Living Carbon reflects our belief that effective nature-based carbon removal requires both strong science and solid execution,” said Julia Strong, Executive Director of Symbiosis Coalition. “Their project stands out for its rigor and for its thoughtful and scalable approach shaped around the needs of the local communities, ecosystems, and economies in Appalachia."

Maddie Hall, CEO and Founder of Living Carbon, said: “We are proud to partner with the Symbiosis Coalition, along with its members, Google, McKinsey, and Meta, to accelerate long-term carbon removal. Multi-year agreements like this provide the confidence needed to invest and scale high-quality, durable removals. This is why Living Carbon exists: we’re intentionally working to turn post-mining and degraded lands in the U.S. from environmental liabilities into productive carbon sinks that not only remove emissions but deliver significant and measurable environmental and social co-benefits as well.”

‍Why Living Carbon?

Living Carbon stood out for its scientifically rigorous approach across site selection, planting design, and monitoring so that credits represent real, additional carbon removal.

The team has demonstrated strong operational capabilities through successful pilot implementation. They also have an extensive network of forestry experts and local landowner partnerships to enable effective project implementation at scale.

Living Carbon also understands the critical role of landowner relationships and community engagement in a project’s long-term success. The project is built upon a rigorous stakeholder engagement process, consulting not only landowners, but also relevant NGOs and local government agencies. This foundation of community support is essential to the project’s durability. 

‍Meeting Symbiosis Quality Standards & Applying Key Learnings

Projects selected via Symbiosis’ RFP undergo thorough evaluation — including on-the-ground field diligence, geospatial analysis, third-party technical evaluation, and comprehensive risk assessment — guided by five quality pillars: conservative accounting, durability, social and community benefits, ecological integrity, and transparency.

Symbiosis builds on the best available science and standards to guide project selection, then shares lessons learned to help strengthen the entire market. 

The selection of this project demonstrates three key learnings from Symbiosis' portfolio development in action:

• Context is Critical: High-quality reforestation can take many forms, but always requires project design specific to the local ecology, economy, and community. Living Carbon’s project represents an example of conservation-oriented reforestation in action. These types of projects are generally best suited for economically marginal lands, and their durability typically comes from legal protection, not just economic incentives, which means they’re designed to last even when market conditions change. 
• Rigor Can Help Mitigate Risks: Growing the supply of nature-based carbon removal projects requires action today, as market conditions change and science continues to evolve. Symbiosis projects address inherent risks through conservative assumptions, clear implementation plans, and robust monitoring. Living Carbon's project will be the first Symbiosis project registered under Isometric's Reforestation Protocol, which requires statistically robust quantification, dynamic baselines, and advanced approaches to leakage and lifecycle assessment. 
• Impact Beyond Carbon is Key: High-integrity carbon removal delivers biodiversity outcomes and alternative economic opportunities alongside climate impact. Living Carbon's project restores ecosystems in communities historically defined by extractive industries, demonstrating how carbon finance can support economic development and ecological restoration in rural Appalachia and beyond. 

‍Catalyzing the Nature-Based Carbon Market

The potential of nature to help meet the world's climate goals is enormous but remains largely untapped. Nature already removes more than 7.6 gigatons of CO₂ each year, and restoring degraded ecosystems could remove an additional 3 gigatons annually by 2030. We need more scalable models like Living Carbon’s approach in Appalachia across various ecosystems and geographies around the world to meet global climate goals.

Symbiosis is helping high-quality nature-based carbon removal projects develop and scale. By providing project developers with clear standards and long-term offtake contracts, Symbiosis creates the certainty needed for developers to unlock lower-cost, larger scale financing. The offtake agreement with Living Carbon demonstrates that there’s demand for high-integrity projects that can demonstrate real, measurable, and durable removal that equitably benefits local communities.

This purchase represents the latest step towards the Symbiosis Coalition's goal to contract more than 20 million tonnes of high-quality nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030. We welcome other mission-aligned companies to consider joining the Coalition and look forward to announcing additional projects and a new RFP soon.