Google carbon removal project in Brazil pairs cattle ranching with tree planting under a 10-year deal.

Google and McKinsey have contracted 320,000 tonnes of carbon removal over 10 years from Working Trees, a Google carbon removal project in Brazil that plants trees on active cattle pasture.

At a glance

Google and McKinsey, acting through the Symbiosis Coalition, signed long-term agreements with Working Trees on Oct. 19. The money will help restore 8,700 hectares of degraded and semi-degraded pastureland in Brazil's Amazon and Cerrado. The tonnes are contracted, not yet removed.

What is the Google carbon removal project in Brazil?

Working Trees plants rows of commercial timber and native tree species directly into existing cattle pasture, leaving space for grazing. The practice has a name: silvopasture. The 8,700 hectares are one slice of a 50,000-hectare project spanning the southeastern Amazon and central Cerrado and the company has already piloted the method on more than 2,000 hectares. Google says ranchers can diversify their income through timber and carbon revenue, while the trees shade cattle. It is the Symbiosis Coalition's first silvopasture investment.

How many tonnes is Google actually buying?

Reports differ. Google's own announcement cites 270,000 tons, while the 320,000-tonne figure covers Google and McKinsey together. By simple subtraction, McKinsey's share would be 50,000 tonnes, though neither company has said so. Neither announcement discloses the price or start date. And again: the 320,000 tonnes represent contracted carbon removal, not carbon already removed from the atmosphere.

What have the people behind the deal said?

Randy Spock, Google's head of carbon removal, called the partnership "a significant leap forward for high-integrity, natural climate solutions." Julia Strong, executive director of the Symbiosis Coalition, told Reuters that silvopasture is "one of the pathways with the most promising potential for scale." The coalition's members include Google, Microsoft, Meta and Salesforce and it has pledged more than 20 million tons of offsets by 2030.

How will the carbon be measured?

Landowners and field workers record individual trees with phone cameras and each record captures location, size, species, GPS coordinates and a timestamp. Working Trees says the technology has been peer-reviewed and validated against manual measurement. Still, the climate benefit depends on how much carbon is removed, how that removal is measured and whether it stays stored over time.

More to Know

Working Trees says its model could expand across 5 to 10 million hectares of Brazilian pastureland and it aims to raise native species from at least 25% to 50% of plantings by 2030.

Commercial species named include African mahogany and teak.

The deal is a voluntary agreement, not a transaction under Brazil's new regulated carbon system.

Working Trees is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2021.

Business Fortune believes the Google carbon removal project in Brazil is a bet that ranchers will plant trees if buyers commit early. The contracts are signed. The carbon, the price and the long-term storage are what remain to be proven.

FAQs

  1. What is the Google carbon removal project in Brazil?

    It is a 10-year agreement, through the Symbiosis Coalition, to buy carbon removal from Working Trees' silvopasture project on Brazilian cattle pasture.

  2. How much carbon removal did Google and McKinsey contract?

    Together they contracted 320,000 tonnes over 10 years. Google's own announcement cites 270,000 tons for its share.

  3. What is silvopasture?

    It is the practice of planting trees directly into active grazing land, so cattle keep grazing while the trees capture carbon.

  4. Where in Brazil is the project?

    It spans the southeastern Amazon and central Cerrado, with 8,700 hectares funded initially.

  5. Has the carbon already been removed?

    No. The tonnes are contracted for future delivery over 10 years.

Sources

Sustainability Magazine, Google, Reuters via U.S. News, ESG Today, Carbon Herald, CarbonCredits.com, ESG News