Google has entered into an agreement with Stegra for the purchase of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) connected to Stegra’s steel production in Boden, Sweden. These EACs help scale global supply for near-zero emission steel.

The agreement covers EACs for a volume of up to 91.000 tonnes of steel for the first year, with an ambition to add more volumes over the length of the agreement.

With these EACs, Google can address the steel-related emissions from its own operations, including the construction of datacenters. Google also contributes to generating increased cash flow to Stegra’s early years of operations, and the ramp-up of production.

"There are some players globally that can help move markets towards decarbonized products in an impactful way. Google is naturally one such player. Beyond the call to action to increase the supply of sustainably produced steel, we are also grateful that the team at Google chose to work with Stegra and support our first years of operations in this way," says Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Stegra.

Near-zero emission steel will initially be available at limited volumes and in few locations. Purchasing environmental attributes enables committed buyers to address their steel-related emissions, even when direct procurement of the physical product is challenging, due to factors like geographical separation or value chain separation.

This is also a mechanism that can support the scaling and financing of new industrial companies in clean tech, and the investment in new sustainable technologies.

This is made possible by decoupling the environmental attributes from the physical product, also known as “book and claim”. The physical steel is delivered as steel without the environmental attributes, which are delivered separately through EACs.

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