Shopify Pledges Climate Commitment

A growing number of businesses are paying attention to climate change, with many making changes to help combat the impact climate change has on the world around us. When you factor in the carbon emissions from shipping, the energy used to run a successful online business and complex supply chains, it’s easy to see why the world of ecommerce is slowly starting to do what it can to offset the damage. However, few businesses have pledged to do quite as much as Shopify.

Shopify’s commitment to reversing climate change centres on removing carbon from the atmosphere, as the company believes that ecommerce can only continue if the world around us is flourishing. This makes sense, as ecommerce success for a business relies heavily on being able to ship products worldwide, which instantly becomes more difficult if climate change starts to restrict this. 

There is no ‘quick fix’ or ‘one size fits all’ solution to reversing climate change, so Shopify has decided to try a wide range of options, hoping to find one that works whilst boosting new technologies. This is all being done to eliminate carbon, which is what Shopify’s climate commitment centres on.

Shopify’s pledge is by no means a short-term plan, and the company is looking to the future. As well as working on solutions to make a difference instantly, the company is embracing new and innovative technologies which could have an impact on a long-term basis. Much of this is done via the Shopify Sustainability Fund, which we have explained more about below.

Shopify has created the Shopify Sustainability Fund, which contributes close to $5 million each year to help entrepreneurs combat climate change. It’s a huge part of Shopify’s pledge to help climate change. The company is supporting a wide range of innovative technologies via the fund, with the aim of permanently removing carbon from the world around us. This has led to a wide range of groundbreaking discoveries, including concrete injected with carbon and large fans that remove greenhouse gases from the air. The Shopify Sustainability Fund is focused on scaling and commercialising climate technology, enabling it to have a significant impact well into the future.

The Shopify Sustainability Fund has been set up with three goals in mind – to generate more of a demand for carbon removal, help new companies prove their environmental impact and scale, and spend millions each year on driving down future prices of climate commitments. It’s doing this by partnering with companies that Shopify believes can help reverse climate change, and 20 are on board already. As the Shopify Sustainability Fund grows, we expect these efforts to grow, which will drive the company’s climate commitment forward even further.

There is no denying that Shopify is a platform that is here to stay, but it’s also a company that wants entrepreneurs and businesses to have the chance to thrive in the future, and a healthy planet is a key component of this. For Shopify, pledging to combat climate change starts from the inside out, which is why Shopify is such an early adopter of renewable power and going completely carbon-neutral as both a company and platform. With Shopify’s sustainable efforts in place, it can fund emerging technologies and help its customers follow suit.

There are many ways that Shopify is driving sustainable ecommerce forward. Businesses that use the Shopify platform can gain access to the Planet App, which enables the business to remove shipping emissions. Plus, when a customer places an order using Shop Pay, Shopify helps by freely funding carbon removal to offset the impact the order will have on the environment. Shopify also funds carbon removal during Black Friday and Cyber Monday to balance out the shipping emissions from all orders placed through the platform during that time.

Shopify’s pledge to combat climate change is by no means a new venture, as the company has been working towards a more sustainable future for a while. 

• Renewable Power – Shopify has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to power all employee home offices across North America with wind energy, becoming the first Canadian-founded company to do so. This agreement drives the development of a new wind farm in a part of North America that has an energy grid that uses a lot of carbon.

• Carbon-Neutral Platform – Back in 2018, Shopify moved everything to Google Cloud, freeing up its reliance on data servers that produce a lot of greenhouse gases. All the energy used by Google Cloud is matched by Google with renewable energy, making Shopify a carbon-neutral platform, which isn’t something many ecommerce platforms can say. 

• Carbon-Neutral Company – As well as being a carbon-neutral platform, Shopify is a carbon-neutral company. Since 2019, Shopify has been using renewable power in its buildings and employee home offices. This has led to Shopify counterbalancing its carbon footprint and natural gas use in Canada with green energy. As Shopify is such a large company this is sure to have a significant impact.

At Quickfire Digital, we have a lot of experience working with Shopify, so we know the ins and outs of the platform. As well as being at the forefront of pledging a climate commitment, Shopify is one of the most reliable and scalable ecommerce solutions. Whether you are a small business with big plans to grow or an established international business, Shopify will tick a lot of boxes as an ecommerce platform.

To find out more about our website design and development services, get in touch with our talented team of Shopify experts.