"The climate solution proposed by tech companies that cost them millions? Rocks."

In an effort to mitigate the impact their emissions have on the climate, companies like Google, H&M Group, and Salesforce have decided to invest in a plan that aims to capture carbon dioxide through rocks. They have signed multi-million dollar agreements with Terradot, a startup backed by Sheryl Sandberg, totaling $27 million to remove 90,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. These agreements were facilitated by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability.

Additionally, Google announced its own agreement to acquire another 200,000 tons of carbon removal from Terradot, although the parties involved have not disclosed the value of this agreement. If the costs are similar to those of the agreement with Frontier, which is approximately $300 per ton of captured CO2, this could total $60 million; however, Google expects the price to decrease over time. The company claims that this is the largest carbon removal contract to date using the "enhanced rock weathering" method, which is the approach Terradot uses to combat climate change. This method is relatively simple and seeks to accelerate a natural process that takes thousands of years.

Terradot originated from a research project at Stanford, co-founded by James Kanoff and Sasankh Munukutla, who were undergraduate students. Kanoff had previously been involved in the Farmlink Project, a nonprofit initiative to connect food banks with farms. It was through this connection that he met Sandberg and secured her support as an investor in his new company. According to Sandberg, Kanoff and his team are proven leaders in the business space, which is uncommon in early-stage startups.

Carbon dioxide removal encompasses a variety of strategies aimed at removing this gas from the atmosphere, potentially helping to curb climate change. However, concerns about the costs and safety of these technologies persist, and experts warn that carbon removal is not a substitute for the need to prevent emissions in the first place.

The enhanced rock weathering technique seeks to accelerate the process by which rainfall weathers rocks, releasing minerals that combine with CO2 and forming bicarbonate in water. This bicarbonate eventually reaches the ocean, where it can be stored and prevent carbon from returning to the atmosphere. Terradot plans to use basalt sourced from quarries in Brazil, providing an additional use in agriculture to improve soil pH.

One of the challenges facing the startup is accurately measuring how many tons of CO2 are actually being captured. Google acknowledged that measuring the impact of this process precisely is currently complicated, but they stated that their support aims to promote the implementation of this technique at scale in the real world. Terradot also plans to analyze soil samples to assess the amount of carbon captured.

Despite these advancements, fossil fuel CO2 emissions continue to contribute to climate disasters such as heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires. Google's carbon footprint has grown with the expansion of its data centers, which are energy-intensive. The company has begun developing advanced nuclear reactors and new solar and wind energy facilities to power its operations with clean energy. While carbon removal is a step towards mitigating environmental impact, it is not a sufficient substitute for emission reductions, and it is crucial for these companies to implement more aggressive measures to reduce their carbon footprint in the future.