Our new deal to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by crushing rocks

Today we’re announcing a long-term purchase agreement and equity investment in carbon removal startup Terradot to help catalyze their enhanced rock weathering (ERW) approach. Through our agreement, we are purchasing 200,000 tons of carbon removal credits, to be delivered by the early 2030s — the largest ERW deal to date.

With this partnership, we’re enabling Terradot to scientifically prove and operationally scale their approach, and advance ERW as a key climate solution that can deliver millions of tons of carbon removal within the next decade. ERW is one of multiple approaches we’re supporting to achieve our net zero goal as a company while accelerating carbon removal as a useful tool for the planet.

You can actually watch the process of rock weathering happening (very, very slowly) in your backyard or local park. When rainwater — which contains a small amount of dissolved CO2 from the atmosphere — falls on rock, a natural chemical process locks a portion of the CO2 into the rock for thousands of years. Terradot aims to speed up this natural phenomenon by crushing widely available basalt rock and spreading it over vast areas of farmlands, improving soil health in the process. Terradot is already running pilot operations in Brazil, where early results have shown that tropical temperature and soils in the region are especially promising for ERW.

Right now, it’s hard to measure with precision how much CO2 this process removes from the atmosphere. But the only way to develop highly rigorous measurement tools is to deploy this approach widely in the real world. That’s why our support aims to help Terradot’s solution get out of the lab more quickly — similar to our recent direct air capture deal with Holocene.

Read more about how Terradot is working to develop and scale their ERW solution.