Dive Brief:
- Microsoft signed a multi-year carbon offtake agreement last week with forest investment and management firm EFM, which will provide the tech giant up to 700,000 nature-based credits through 2035.
- The carbon removal credits will be delivered from EFM’s plans to transition 68,000 acres of forests in Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula to climate-smart forestry practices, in addition to developing the property’s function as a “robust carbon sink,” per the firm’s strategy.
- Microsoft also invested in the EFM Fund IV — which aims to secure forest properties across the U.S. and mobilize $300 million for sustainable forestry practices — through its Climate Innovation Fund. The exact amount invested was not disclosed in the May 7 release.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft said the investment in EFM’s fund was the first forestry-focused deal CIF had conducted in the United States and would help the software provider secure an additional 2.3 million high-quality carbon removal credits through EFM’s investment platform. Microsoft said the agreement offers “significant ecosystem and community benefits.”
The deal also builds on Microsoft’s goals of becoming carbon negative by 2030 and removing all the carbon the company has emitted into the environment since it was founded, either directly or from electrical consumption, by 2050.
“Microsoft recognizes the important role of high-quality, nature-based solutions in meeting our carbon negative by 2030 goals,” Microsoft Senior Director of Energy and Carbon Removal Brian Marrs said in the release. “Our collaboration with EFM is a significant step towards unlocking the value of the latest scientific advancements in improved forest management as a carbon removal pathway.”
The agreement follows a similar deal Meta signed with EFM last month. This 10-year arrangement will give the social media and tech conglomerate 676,000 nature-based carbon removal credits by 2035, as EFM transitions tens of thousands of acres of forests to climate-smart management strategies. At the time, both companies said the carbon offtake deal was “one of the first known contracts of this type.”
