Our Story
Everyone has a story, but not everyone’s is as rich as ours. Choose a section below to dig into who we are, or press NCX Today to see what we’ve been up to lately.
  • A Living, Breathing Mission

    A Living, Breathing Mission
    Every living tree absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. The hundreds of millions of forest acres in the US can play a key role in fighting climate change. Simply deferring harvest and letting trees grow older, one year at a time has a powerful additive effect to their capacity to capture carbon.

    Legacy carbon-offset programs, though, discourage thousands of landowners from growing more carbon-rich forests. The barriers for entry of legacy programs sideline smaller landowners (and their 200 million forest acres), and pose a major challenge to large-scale climate action. In fact, it might be the top challenge to building a comprehensive forest carbon strategy in the US.

    Until now.
  • Forests for the Future, For All Living Creatures

    Forests for the Future, For All Living Creatures
    As a kid, Zack Parisa fell in love with forests: the insects and the animals, the rivers, the streams and, of course, the trees. Years later, Zack enrolled in the Yale forestry program and, while doing fieldwork in Armenia, he came to a stark realization: we’ll only get the forests we want if we assemble detailed analyses of the forests we already have.

    Zack and co-founder Max Nova imagined a market alternative to both the timber industry and legacy carbon projects, which can cost a landowner up to $200,000 to participate. The big hairy goal? A carbon exchange built on reliable data – open to families like those Zack grew up with in southeastern Alabama.
  • A Map for the Future

    A Map for the Future
    The breakthrough came when they developed a way to combine satellite imagery with field measurements to determine the size and species of trees in every acre of forest powered by Microsoft’s AI for Earth program. The proprietary US Forest dataset now serves as the foundation for the Natural Capital Exchange. So what makes this data-borne exchange unique?

    A laser focus on baselines using economics, technology, and data to establish an understanding of what would have happened without the marketplace incentive.

    NCX does this at scales both large and small – large scale climate, community, and wildlife habitat impact across millions of acres is supported by small, precision measurements of every tree on every acre, for every landowner, every year.
  • Building Solutions for Immediate Impact

    Building Solutions for Immediate Impact
    This decade will determine whether we as a society succeed in climate action. Inclusive, immediate, and massive climate impact is critical to our collective success and the NCX year-at-a-time approach to harvest deferral is designed to ensure we get there.

    Together we can unlock the full carbon potential of American forests by enabling every landowner to be part of the climate solution.

    “The world needs more innovations to bend the arc of emissions toward net zero and beyond,” Zack says. “At NCX, we help forests and communities thrive by democratizing the benefits of carbon-removing incentives. But we can’t do it alone. Join us today to work for positive climate change and make a lasting difference for the future of our planet.”

Our Story

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  • A Living, Breathing Mission

  • Forests for the Future, For All Living Creatures

  • A Map for the Future

  • Building Solutions for Immediate Impact

Every living tree absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. The hundreds of millions of forest acres in the US can play a key role in fighting climate change. Simply deferring harvest and letting trees grow older, one year at a time has a powerful additive effect to their capacity to capture carbon.

Legacy carbon-offset programs, though, discourage thousands of landowners from growing more carbon-rich forests. The barriers for entry of legacy programs sideline smaller landowners (and their 200 million forest acres), and pose a major challenge to large-scale climate action. In fact, it might be the top challenge to building a comprehensive forest carbon strategy in the US.

Until now.
Every living tree absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. The hundreds of millions of forest acres in the US can play a key role in fighting climate change. Simply deferring harvest and letting trees grow older, one year at a time has a powerful additive effect to their capacity to capture carbon.

Legacy carbon-offset programs, though, discourage thousands of landowners from growing more carbon-rich forests. The barriers for entry of legacy programs sideline smaller landowners (and their 200 million forest acres), and pose a major challenge to large-scale climate action. In fact, it might be the top challenge to building a comprehensive forest carbon strategy in the US.

Until now.
As a kid, Zack Parisa fell in love with forests: the insects and the animals, the rivers, the streams and, of course, the trees. Years later, Zack enrolled in the Yale forestry program and, while doing fieldwork in Armenia, he came to a stark realization: we’ll only get the forests we want if we assemble detailed analyses of the forests we already have.

Zack and co-founder Max Nova imagined a market alternative to both the timber industry and legacy carbon projects, which can cost a landowner up to $200,000 to participate. The big hairy goal? A carbon exchange built on reliable data – open to families like those Zack grew up with in southeastern Alabama.
The breakthrough came when they developed a way to combine satellite imagery with field measurements to determine the size and species of trees in every acre of forest powered by Microsoft’s AI for Earth program. The proprietary US Forest dataset now serves as the foundation for the Natural Capital Exchange. So what makes this data-borne exchange unique?

A laser focus on baselines using economics, technology, and data to establish an understanding of what would have happened without the marketplace incentive.

NCX does this at scales both large and small – large scale climate, community, and wildlife habitat impact across millions of acres is supported by small, precision measurements of every tree on every acre, for every landowner, every year.
This decade will determine whether we as a society succeed in climate action. Inclusive, immediate, and massive climate impact is critical to our collective success and the NCX year-at-a-time approach to harvest deferral is designed to ensure we get there.

Together we can unlock the full carbon potential of American forests by enabling every landowner to be part of the climate solution.

“The world needs more innovations to bend the arc of emissions toward net zero and beyond,” Zack says. “At NCX, we help forests and communities thrive by democratizing the benefits of carbon-removing incentives. But we can’t do it alone. Join us today to work for positive climate change and make a lasting difference for the future of our planet.”
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Our Investors

Shaping the Future of Forest Carbon with Microsoft AI

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Today, with precision forestry data powered by Microsoft AI, NCX invites all US landowners to manage their forests for the future.

Leadership Team

Zack Parisa
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Zack Parisa Co-Founder | Chief Executive Officer
Max Nova
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Max Nova Co-Founder | Chief Operating Officer
Julia Strong
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Julia Strong Head of Business Development
Dr. Spencer Meyer
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Dr. Spencer Meyer Head of Science
Lora Paredes
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Lora Paredes Head of People
Kyle Cubin
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Kyle Cubin Senior Director of Finance
Cheryl Sansonetti
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Cheryl Sansonetti Director of Marketing
Andy Morgan
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Andy Morgan Director of Product
Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn
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Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn General Counsel

Board Members

Zack Parisa Zack Parisa Board
Max Nova Max Nova Board
Marc Benioff Marc Benioff Board
Katie McClain Katie McClain Board

NCX Co-Founder on the Power of Forests and Markets

Zack Parisa on how landowners and net-zero leaders added nearly 10 million acres of forests to the Natural Capital Exchange.

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