From Oil Wells to Oak Trees: Ben Dell’s Half-Billion-Dollar Pivot to Carbon Offsetting

What if planting trees could be not just good for the planet, but also a profitable business?
In this episode, I’m talking with Ben Dell, the founder and CEO of Chestnut Carbon — a company that’s raised nearly $400 million, including $250 million of that in 2025, to turn farmland back into thriving native forests across the United States. And he’s already forging major carbon removal deals with the likes of Microsoft and Mercedes F1.

Ben’s journey is a fascinating one: he began his career in oil and gas private equity, helping fossil-fuel companies optimize their operations. But during the pandemic, he had what you might call a carbon epiphany. Seeing how few trustworthy carbon-removal projects existed, he decided to create his own — one that would make measurable, verifiable, and permanent carbon storage not just possible, but investable.

In our conversation, Ben explains why carbon is a commodity, and how to prove you’ve really stored it. He talks about how Chestnut buys up marginal cattle-grazed land and restores it into biodiverse forests — with already more than 17 million trees planted. And he goes over why he proudly calls Chestnut “conservation for profit” — a business model that needs no subsidies, just land, good science, and a lot of patience.

Ben also talks about the challenges of scaling a nature-based startup, the importance of grit over glamour, and why he believes restoring forests can be one of America’s most investable climate solutions.

So if you’ve ever wondered how capitalism might actually reverse deforestation — not cause it — this episode will give you a hopeful, grounded look at what that future could look like.

Discussed in this episode

• Ben is a managing partner at Kimmeridge.

• Business Insider profile and a Wall Street Journal profile on Ben’s work.

• Our past episode with author Mike Grunwald.

• You can see Chestnut’s patent, “Systems and methods for forest surveying,” here.

• Chestnut’s offtake partnership with Microsoft and a similar agreement with Mercedes F1.

• Ben recommends podcasts such as Lex Fridman’s and Invest Like the Best.

Get to Know Ben Dell

Ben Dell is a Managing Partner of Kimmeridge and oversees investment activity across the firm. He is closely involved in the screening of new geological opportunities and in the negotiation and execution of investment strategies. 

Prior to founding Kimmeridge, Mr. Dell was a Senior Equity Research Analyst for Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (E&P) at Sanford C. Bernstein, where he was ranked first three times in the Institutional Investor Research Survey for coverage of E&Ps. Mr. Dell was also ranked for Natural Gas and for Oil Services and Equipment coverage. Mr. Dell joined Sanford C. Bernstein in 2003. Prior to joining Bernstein, Mr. Dell was employed at British Petroleum (BP) in its M&A and finance group. Before moving into the finance field, Mr. Dell also held positions as an exploration geologist and geophysicist across several of BP’s regional business units. 

Mr. Dell is currently CEO of Chestnut Carbon, a nature-based carbon removal developer and is on the Board of Caturus HoldCo, LLC., a large private natural gas producer in South Texas. He previously held positions as Chairman of the Board and interim CEO of Civitas Resources, Inc. (“Civitas”), a company that formed from the merger of Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. and Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc.  Mr. Dell earned an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in Earth Sciences from St. Peter’s College, Oxford.