To accelerate the adoption of low-carbon building materials across its datacenter footprint, through its Climate Innovation Fund (CIF), Microsoft has made an investment in green cement manufacturer Fortera. The investment secures Microsoft’s rights to procure Fortera’s ReAct low-carbon cement and environmental attribute certificates (EACs).
The decision is part of the company's long-term investment plan in achieving their 2030 carbon negative goals, says Brandon Middaugh, general manager of sustainability markets & Climate Innovation Fund at Microsoft. “Corporate investment can assist in jumpstarting and scaling nascent markets like low-carbon cement," he adds. "Our team was attracted to Fortera’s approach due to its potential for deep emission reductions, competitive cost targets, and its expected compatibility with existing production infrastructure.”
Microsoft seeks to grow the market supply of low-emissions cement and to create an early demand signal that helps scale novel low-carbon products industry-wide.
Connor Woodrich, Kas Farsad, and Ryan Gilliam, at MicrosoftFortera
"The investment has two parts," explains Ryan Gilliam, CEO of Fortera, "a commercial agreement that gives Microsoft rights to buy Fortera’s ReAct low-carbon cement while also purchasing environmental attribute certificates tied to that production. In practice, that means Microsoft can directly use ReAct in its data center construction projects, lowering embodied carbon in concrete, and use the EACs to reduce Scope 3 emissions across its broader building portfolio."
What's an EAC? EACs account for the carbon savings from producing low-carbon cement. The EAC owner can then "book and claim" those carbon reduction benefits in construction projects. This creates a pathway for companies to 1) lower the embodied carbon of their buildings while 2) signaling the demand to help scale the green cement industry.
According to Gilliam, Microsoft’s data center strategy includes ways to reduce the embodied carbon of the materials that go into building and expanding their data center footprint. Low-carbon cement and concrete solutions are a part of that strategy.
Fortera's ReCarb technology produces cement with 70 percent lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to ordinary portland cement (OPC), while maintaining near-term cost parity and performance standards. The technology captures CO2 released in the kiln as limestone is heated to calcium carbonate, then turned into the ReAct cement. It meets ASTM standards and can be blended with OPC or used as a standalone product. The company states that ReAct maintains the same strength, set time, and durability as traditional cement, while also improving workability and flow in certain mixes. That means concrete contractors can use it just like conventional cement, with no tradeoffs in performance or finish.
"Microsoft's collaboration with Fortera aligns with our goal to advance novel technologies to commercially available products,” says Gilliam. Adding, “Across a range of sectors, Microsoft has played a catalytic role in overcoming market barriers to decarbonization. Their investment highlights the impact our full commercial-scale plant brings to the low-carbon building materials space.”
Erik Urosa, group manager of impact investments at Microsoft, will also join Fortera's board of directors as an observer.
Microsoft's investment will enable Fortera to build its first full-scale 400,000-ton-per-year commercial facility. A location has not yet been named, they say that it will be located in the U.S.
