W+E Forward has brokered AT&T’s purchase of carbon credits from Carbon X’s Walker Ranch project in Texas, connecting corporate demand with methane abatement and demonstrating a practical application of the organization’s market-based approach.

AT&T has purchased carbon credits from Carbon X’s Walker Ranch project in Texas in a transaction brokered by W+E Forward.

The project involved plugging 23 legacy oil and gas wells in Stephens County. According to Carbon X, 17 wells qualified for credit issuance, generating approximately 321,000 carbon credits across the project. That figure represents the project total; AT&T’s purchase quantity has not been publicly disclosed.

AT&T also provides connectivity that supports field operations, methane monitoring and the transmission of verification records. This technology role is distinct from its credit purchase and is featured in the company’s Gigaton Goal initiative, which aims to enable one billion metric tons of emissions reductions by 2035.

For W+E Forward, the transaction puts part of our mission into practice: bringing environmental projects and corporate buyers together through a workable commercial structure. The organization grew out of the Marquette S-Lab, and its broader purpose is to support energy and water improvements, particularly for smaller businesses.

As Chair of W+E Forward, I’m pleased to share this milestone and grateful to the Carbon X and AT&T teams, along with our W+E Forward colleagues, for bringing the transaction to completion. It provides a concrete foundation for the work ahead.

 The Marquette S-Lab’s 2026 annual report examines how economic development can expand human opportunity while preserving the natural assets that sustain prosperity, bringing engineering, finance and governance together around a practical agenda for durable growth.

The Marquette S-Lab’s 2026 annual report, Development Without Depletion: Engineering Prosperity and Preserving Natural Capital, is now available on the S-Lab website.

This year’s report asks a fundamental question: how can we deliver the energy, water and infrastructure needed for human development without consuming the natural assets on which future prosperity depends?

The distinction between income and wealth runs throughout the report. Economic output can rise while forests, aquifers and other productive natural systems deteriorate. Recognizing that contradiction does not require abandoning growth. It requires a better understanding of what makes growth durable.

The report examines the capabilities of engineering alongside the limits of technological substitution, and considers how finance and governance can turn useful innovations into viable investments. It also highlights applied work emerging from the S-Lab ecosystem, including W+E Forward and the Walker Ranch methane-abatement transaction.

As S-Lab Co-Director, my hope is that the report contributes to a more useful discussion of sustainability—one grounded in the requirements of development and the responsibility to preserve future opportunity.

Read the full 2026 annual report here.

W+E Forward’s new website introduces our nonprofit’s mission to help business and society reduce carbon impact, improve energy efficiency and water stewardship, using market-based environmental finance to build a practical connection between measurable environmental benefits and productive investment opportunities.

The W+E Forward website is live.

W+E Forward grew out of the Marquette S-Lab around a practical problem: smaller manufacturers can have worthwhile opportunities to save energy and improve water use, yet lack the capital or internal capacity to pursue them.

Our mission is to help close that gap through market-based environmental finance. Initial work has focused on methane abatement, connecting projects that plug leaking legacy wells with buyers of verified carbon credits. The recently completed AT&T–Carbon X transaction is one example of that work.

The broader ambition is to reinvest a portion of the proceeds available to W+E Forward in energy and water improvements for smaller businesses, alongside support for related technology development. Building that financing capacity remains part of the work ahead.

As Chair, I’m pleased to introduce W+E Forward to a wider audience. We want to connect with manufacturers facing these investment challenges, companies seeking credible environmental projects, and partners who can help bring technical expertise and financing together.

Visit weforward.org, and please share it with others who may have an interest in the work.