Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund made its first US investment in forestry. The billion-dollar fund invested in EFM, a Portland-based firm that acquires forest properties and implements climate-smart practices to boost carbon storage capacity, biodiversity and water and soil quality. It also engages with local tribes and communities.
“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,” said the software company’s Brian Marrs.
Microsoft’s investment will go to EFM’s fourth fund, which is looking to raise $300 million to acquire forests, primarily in the Western US. The fund will target other US regions where climate-smart management can deliver a competitive advantage for investors of forest assets.
Nature-based offsets
EFM’s partnership with Microsoft includes an offtake agreement to deliver up to 700,000 carbon removal credits over 10 years. EFM expects to generate the credits from the climate-smart management of a recently-acquired forest asset on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.
Microsoft can secure an additional stream of up to 2.3 million nature-based carbon removal credits from EFM’s forests.
At the end of March, EFM announced an offtake agreement with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to deliver 676,000 nature-based carbon credits from the same Olympic Peninsula forest by 2035. Meta made the investment through its billion-dollar Natural Capital Fund, managed by Climate Asset Management.
