The tech giant will buy certificates from Fortera, which is working to build its first commercial plant. The strategy is catching on in the industrial sector.
Workers pour concrete with Fortera’s low-carbon cement at a Simpson University building in Redding, California, in early 2025. (Fortera)
Tech companies say they’re seeking low-carbon construction materials to limit the climate impact of their data centers. But very little clean cement or green steel is actually being produced in the U.S. today, and only in a handful of locations.
To tackle that dilemma, Meta recently struck a deal with Fortera to help the startup build its first commercial low-carbon cement plant, in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Fortera’s approach involves capturing carbon dioxide that’s emitted during other companies’ industrial processes and injecting the compound into cement, where the CO2 stays trapped instead of being vented into the atmosphere.
On Thursday, Meta said it would buy environmental attribute certificates from Fortera that represent about 200,000 tons of cement from the forthcoming project, though the companies didn’t disclose financial terms.
By signaling its demand, Meta aims to help Fortera attract the funding needed to construct the facility. And the certificates allow Meta to claim the green credentials independent from where the firm is actually building data centers, since cement doesn’t typically travel far from where it’s made. Instead, the physical product will be sold to customers near the plant at market rates — without any of the extra costs involved with cleaner cement-making.
“ That’s really the catalyst the industry needs to move from pilots to true commercial production,” Ryan Gilliam, CEO of San Jose, California–based Fortera, said by email.
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