Google and McKinsey Contract 320,000 Tonnes of CO2 Removal in Brazil

Google and McKinsey have contracted 320,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removal from Working Trees, a company that converts degraded cattle pasture in Brazil into mixed-species silvopasture systems. The contracts, signed through the Symbiosis Coalition, commit the buyers to delivery over ten years and mark the coalition's first investment in silvopasture.

Working Trees will direct the secured funding toward restoring 8,700 hectares of degraded and semi-degraded pasture. That tract sits inside a larger 50,000-hectare project area spanning the southeastern Amazon and the central Cerrado in Brazil.

The Symbiosis Coalition formed to back next-generation nature-based carbon dioxide removal by 2030. Its members previously contracted reforestation-based removal from Living Carbon, and Google and McKinsey signed long-term deals with Thryve.Earth. The Working Trees agreements extend that portfolio into agroforestry on working ranchland.

"Our mission at Working Trees is to mobilize the next generation of cattle ranching – where producers and nature thrive together – by partnering with ranchers to deploy silvopasture at the million-hectare scale," said the company's CEO, Leif Gonzales-Kramer.

Why the material stream is pastureland

Cattle grazing ranks as the leading cause of deforestation and forest fragmentation globally, and it drives soil degradation across multiple regions. Silvopasture attacks that problem at its source. The practice integrates trees purposefully into degraded cattle pasture, where they restore landscape connectivity, improve soil health and support better cattle outcomes on fewer hectares.

Scientists estimate silvopasture can remove between 0.3 and 1 billion tonnes of CO2 each year worldwide. That range places it among the most scalable nature-based solutions currently available on the carbon removal market.

What does this change for carbon buyers?

The deal signals that corporate buyers will fund removal tied to agricultural land use change, not only forestation. It also sets a delivery schedule the market can track: 320,000 tonnes over ten years, from 8,700 hectares under restoration within a named 50,000-hectare project boundary.

Gonzales-Kramer framed the contracts as more than one-off transactions. Landscape-level change, he argued, requires long-term partners on both sides — ranchers who commit to decades of restoration activity and buyers who commit to funding that behavior change.

"The Symbiosis Coalition is that kind of critical long-term partner, and we're proud to build alongside them to improve livelihoods, regenerate pasturelands, and mitigate climate change," he said.

The milestone to watch

The next test is tonnage actually delivered against the ten-year schedule, and whether Working Trees can scale from 8,700 restored hectares toward its stated million-hectare ambition by the coalition's 2030 horizon.