Sources: Carbon Direct, New York City; CP staff
With Microsoft Corp. backing, carbon dioxide emissions management and accounting specialist Carbon Direct has published a first-of-its-kind guide to environmental attribute certificates (EACs) in concrete and steel production. It provides the technology giant criteria to address greenhouse gas emissions from scope 3 activity with EACs that are “verifiable, additional, and catalytic.” The GHG Protocol defines such emissions as those from parties in a company’s supply chain. Microsoft’s target of becoming carbon negative by 2030 hinges on lowering scope 3 metrics attached to concrete and steel specifications for pending and future data center projects.
Figures in Carbon Direct’s “Criteria for High-Quality Environmental Attribute Certificates in the Concrete and Steel Sectors” are relevant to data center stakeholders or other entities seeking to mitigate supply chain emissions from the embodied carbon of commodity materials used in both equipment and building construction.
Carbon Direct and Microsoft have collaborated to advance CO2 emissions removal guidance since 2021. The latter has more recently engaged directly with concrete and steel suppliers to procure low-carbon alternatives to conventional offerings, as well as investing in and helping pilot new low-carbon production pathways. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a purchase agreement with Massachusetts-based Sublime Systems, whose namesake ASTM C1157-grade cement is produced at significantly lower CO2 emissions levels than portland cement. The agreement covers 622,000 metric tons of Sublime Cement deliveries over a six- to nine-year period. It positions Sublime Systems to help finance a commercial scale production facility through proceeds from EAC sales to Microsoft.
To maximize the potential climate impact of its EAC procurement, Microsoft worked with
Carbon Direct to establish the following rigorous, science-based criteria:
- Require that EACs only be used when material with significant sustainability benefits cannot be directly procured in sufficient quantity within a project’s physical supply chain.
- Achieve a Global Cement and Concrete Association Low Carbon Concrete (or Cement) Rating of at least “D” or a Responsible Steel Progress Level 2 or higher rating.
- Demand robust additionality, particularly that projects must go beyond efficiency savings and subsidized upgrades, regulatory requirements, and common practice.
- Mandate independent verification, traceability, and safeguards against double counting of environmental benefits.
- Require assessment and mitigation of leakage risks to help prevent claimed reductions from shifting emissions elsewhere.
“EACs have the potential to address a number of the most critical challenges to scaling deep decarbonization solutions, not least by providing financial certainty. By setting a high bar for EACs, we’re ensuring that our investments drive real emissions reductions as we invite the industry to join us in shaping a high-impact market for low-carbon building materials,” says Microsoft Fuel and Materials Decarbonization Lead Julia Fidler.
“To decarbonize the world’s largest supply chains, we need solutions that are both ambitious and credible. Our criteria set a quality bar for environmental attribute
certificates in concrete and steel,” adds Carbon Direct Director of Decarbonization Science Dr. Meera Atreya. “By prioritizing high integrity, social and environmental
safeguards, and a pathway to scale, we’re not just supporting Microsoft and other companies to meet their climate goals, we’re helping to catalyze a market transformation that benefits the entire sector.”
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