Dive Brief:
- Microsoft signed an agreement with sustainability solutions provider Anew Climate Tuesday, which aims to deliver over 970,000 nature-based carbon removal credits to the tech giant.
- The carbon credits will be generated from Anew’s portfolio of forest management and afforestation projects based across the U.S., including those in forestlands owned by Aurora Sustainable Lands, the Baskahegan Company and Acadian Timber Corp.
- The deal will build on Microsoft’s goal to become carbon negative by 2030 and joins a flurry of recent initiatives the company has undertaken to mitigate its carbon footprint.
Dive Insight:
Forests — which help in climate mitigation by sequestering over 866 million tons of carbon per year, or around 16% of annual emissions in the U.S. — play a pivotal role in the tech company’s contract with Anew. Improved forest management projects, in particular, can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Techniques employed in such projects include reducing harvest volumes, creating credits for avoided emissions and extending forest rotations, which can lead to more carbon removal and storage. These projects also enable forests to become more sustainable and allow them to better withstand the effects of climate change.
“Carbon removal credits provide a financial incentive for traditional institutional landowners and managers to shift to sustainable forestry and land management practices,” Brian Marrs, Microsoft’s senior director of energy and carbon removal, said in a press release.
Marrs said Microsoft’s collaboration with Anew would help increase the carbon stocks — systems or reservoirs that can store or release carbon — of forests across the U.S. Carbon stocks
The announcement follows several other investments Microsoft has made in decarbonization ventures as of late. Among those are a landmark carbon removal contract with Stockholm Exergi, a 6-year offtake agreement with Catona Climate and a renewable energy credits purchase agreement with Recurrent Energy.
Last month, the software systems company joined Google, Meta and Salesforce to launch an advanced market commitment under the banner of the Symbiosis Coalition to contract up to 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removal credits by the end of the decade.
