ACRE Releases 2026 Economy of Life Report, Detailing Successful Investment in Nature's Restoration

2026 report documents 23 years of impact and examines how finance, technology, and environmental markets can create lasting value across air, land, and water.

THE PLAINS, Va., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ACRE Investment Management, a leading natural capital investment platform, today launched the release of "The Economy of Life: Twenty-Three Years of Impact for People and the Planet," its 2026 report exploring how valuing nature can turn environmental restoration into a lasting source of economic opportunity.

Drawing on 23 years of environmental stewardship and partnering with landowners and dedicated companies, the report connects on-the-ground restoration with the capital, partnerships, and market structures needed to sustain it. Through reforestation, nutrient banking, living shorelines, and oyster restoration, it argues that healthy landscapes are essential economic assets whose value should be measured, financed, and protected.

"For 23 years, our company has worked to put a price and value on natural capital," writes B. Chandler Van Voorhis, Co-Founder and Manager of ACRE Investment Management, in the report. "Nature is the ultimate technology, with the capacity to grow, regenerate, and scale. Our hope has been to put humanity back into markets by enlarging the orbit of capitalism to include nature in its thinking, and to learn from the genius of nature at work."

The report documents impact across ACRE's portfolio, including:

• More than 150,000 acres under management across ACRE projects.
• 7.79 million metric tons of verified carbon removals delivered by ACRE's GreenTrees reforestation project in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley
• 50 million trees planted by GreenTrees and its landowners with government cost-share support
• 6.8 million Eastern oysters established in the Chesapeake Bay.

The central theme is the need to finance restoration through its full life cycle. Using GreenTrees as a case study, the report examines how public conservation funding, private investment, and carbon revenue can work together to help landowners establish forests and sustain them for decades. GreenTrees now spans more than 141,000 acres across more than 700 landowner partners.

Looking at the wealth beneath America's debt, the report asks how the nation's natural capital could contribute to its long-term financial health. It explores a proposed tradable tax credit for land-based carbon sequestration that could generate income for landowners and revenue to help pay down the national debt, connecting ecological restoration with a broader rethinking of how the country measures and builds wealth.

Additional case studies show how environmental markets can connect restoration with business and community needs. At Norfolk Southern's Lambert's Point terminal, CPEC, a joint venture between ACRE's Conservation Plus and Eco-Cap, helped establish a nutrient bank and bring credits from the railroad's living shoreline restoration to market. At Virginia Oaks, a former golf course has become a roughly 108-acre nutrient bank, supporting watershed health while preserving walking paths and open space for the HOAs and communities surrounding it.

Looking ahead, The Economy of Life presents ten ways for advancing voluntary carbon markets and challenges readers to reconsider how nature is accounted for in economic decisions. Its message is grounded in a practical goal: make restoration financially sustainable so its benefits endure across generations.

Download The Economy of Life at acre-investment.com/2026-economy-of-life-report.

About ACRE Investment Management

ACRE Investment Management, LLC is a natural capital company managing five platforms across carbon removal, reforestation, nutrient mitigation, and ecosystem restoration. ACRE works with private landowners, corporate buyers, investors, and government agencies to make large-scale restoration economically achievable. Follow on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/acre-investment-management.

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SOURCE ACRE Investment Management