Doubling down for Earth Month: Shopify's approach to sustainable commerce and carbon removal
April 02, 2024 at 09:18 am EDT
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Shopify wants to be a 100-year company. To make our 100-year vision come true, we need to not only make commerce better, but also take better care of our planet.
Our approach to this challenge is to use engineering skills to create market forces. Just as we lowered the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs, we are kickstarting the market for carbon removal, an essential but expensive solution. The idea is to reduce friction and boost demand.
One way we do this is with our Planet app, where merchants can offer their customers carbon-neutral shipping on every order. These aren't questionable carbon offsets: every penny funds high-quality, cutting-edge carbon removal technologies.
During April, Shopify is matching all carbon removal funding on deliveries from merchants that are using the Planet app. This effectively doubles our merchants' and their customers' impact.
Combatting delivery emissions is what our planet needs, and it's also what customers want: more than half (54%) of people say they shop sustainably, and 43% say they're more likely to purchase from a sustainable brand.
Since 2022, our merchants have used Planet to:
neutralize shipping emissions from more than 25 million orders
remove 23,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere
contribute more than $1 million in funding for carbon removal projects
How Planet Works
Once installed, Planet estimates merchants' shipping emissions by looking at factors like delivery distance, transportation method, and product weight. Merchants choose a subscription plan and pay an average of 3.5 to 15 cents per order to fund carbon removal.
In January 2024, we launched a feature that lets customers fund carbon removal too, by adding 25 cents to their order.
This funding goes to companies developing carbon removal technologies like direct air capture, ocean carbon removal, bio-oil sequestration, soil carbon storage, and enhanced rock weathering.
"Implementing Planet has been a meaningful step in making it possible for us to achieve carbon neutrality in our shipping operations," said merchant Perfectly Natural Soap. "We're proud to partner with a solution that not only aligns with our environmental goals but also makes greener logistics possible, reinforcing our commitment to the planet and our customers."
Commerce is a powerful vehicle for change. By voting with our dollars, individuals and businesses making conscious choices can change the world. Using the market forces of supply and demand to further worthy causes is one of the most potent recipes for progress, and we believe applying this thinking to climate change is our best chance of preserving our pale blue dot.
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Shopify Inc. published this content on
02 April 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by
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02 April 2024 13:17:04 UTC.
Shopify Inc. (Shopify) is a Canada-based global commerce company. The Company provides essential Internet infrastructure for commerce, offering tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. It provides platforms and services that are engineered and delivers a shopping experience for consumers online, in store and everywhere in between. Its software enables merchants to run their business across all of their sales channels, including Web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, social media storefronts, and marketplaces. The Company's Shopify platform provides merchants with a single view of their business across all of their sales channels and enables them to manage products and inventory, process orders and payments, fulfill and ship orders, build customer relationships, source products, leverage analytics and reporting, and access financing, all from one integrated back office. The Shopify's platform operates across 175 countries.