As part of the agreement, the EACs associated with the physical steel are verified by an accredited third party. Meta is purchasing EACs to drive demand for lower carbon materials, address emissions in its supply chain, and help scale and finance early-stage manufacturing.
Steel is one of the largest sources of embodied carbon in data centre construction and conventional steelmaking has few commercially proven alternatives at scale.
The contract with Stegra supports Meta's effort to address emissions sources throughout its supply chain, including the steel used to build data centres. EACs allow Meta to address their own supply chain emissions while driving lower carbon solutions across the steelmaking sector.
Stegra's steelmaking process is based on green hydrogen and renewable electricity, allowing for up to 95% reduction of CO2 emissions compared to conventional blast furnace-based steelmaking.
"The market for green steel is still in its early stages, and physical supply has not caught up with demand. Environmental attribute certificates let us act on those emissions now, with third-party verification, and direct demand toward production that is still coming online. That is how the market for green steel gets built," said Devon Lake, Head of Net Zero Strategy, Meta.
Meta is part of the RMI Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform which is a group of companies that are active in sectors with high steel usage, and are committed to facilitating low-emission steel procurement. EACs allow companies to address their steel-related emissions where direct procurement of the physical product is challenging. EACs can help drive investment to new manufacturing capacity and scale promising clean technologies.
"Meta has been a leader in addressing supply chain emissions, including utilising environmental attribute certificates to make progress in hard to abate sectors. Meta is a leader with a global reach, and a valuable partner for Stegra to be working with, we hope that this is the start of a long partnership," commented Luisa Orre, Chief Business Development Officer, Stegra.
