If you’re working in ecommerce, you might be tired of hearing the word “sustainability”.
It’s a topic that comes up time and time again, but for good reason. Climate change is at the forefront of both retailers’ and consumers’ minds, and plays a part in many of the choices they make.
For ecommerce businesses especially, carbon emissions are a huge concern. When choosing a platform for your online store, it’s important to pick one that aligns with your climate goals, as well as your morals. Shopify offers a range of features and initiatives that assist its merchants in lowering their carbon footprint.
In this post, we’ll take a look at Shopify’s sustainability work and answer the question: is Shopify environmentally friendly?
Shopify & sustainability: features you should know about
Carbon neutral shipping
Shipping is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and Shopify addresses this challenge with its Shopify Planet app. This feature allows merchants to offer carbon-neutral shipping by automatically calculating the emissions generated from their shipments and purchasing carbon removal credits to offset them (more on those below). Shopify partners with over 40 reputable carbon removal companies to ensure that every offset contributes to meaningful environmental action.
Carbon offsets and credits
Shopify takes sustainability a step further with its investment in the Shopify Sustainability Fund, which allocates at least $5 million annually to climate technologies. It has also committed an additional $100 million to permanent carbon removal by 2030. Merchants can contribute by purchasing carbon offsets through the platform, helping fund initiatives such as direct air capture and reforestation projects.
Eco-friendly product options
Shopify offers integrations with various apps that help merchants source and promote sustainable products. Apps such as EcoCart allow customers to make their orders carbon-neutral by contributing to sustainability initiatives at checkout. Other apps assist with sourcing eco-friendly packaging and supply chain management to reduce waste.
Shopify apps for sustainable commerce:
EcoCart: enables customers to contribute to carbon offsetting.
Packhelp: provides merchants with customisable sustainable packaging solutions.
Printify (Eco Range): offers print-on-demand products made from eco-friendly materials.
Carbon-neutral platform
It’s not all about shipping and transport emissions. Data centres also use a lot of energy. In 2018, Shopify decommissioned all of its data servers and shifted entirely to Google Cloud. Google matches 100% of the energy consumed by Google Cloud with renewable energy, making Shopify a carbon-neutral platform.
Encouraging a circular economy
Shopify offers a comprehensive ecosystem of apps and integrations that make it easier for merchants to adopt a circular business model by incorporating features such as resale markets, product recycling programs, and rental options. Shopify’s integrations with apps like Loop Returns help businesses manage returns sustainably by promoting reuse and resale.
Shopify’s commitment to sustainability
As well as helping merchants to reduce their carbon fooprint, Shopify also has its own sustainability goals and initiatives.
Clear climate goals
Shopify is upfront about its sustainability goals and the work it’s doing to achieve them, as well as any obstacles and how they are being overcome. In 2022, Shopify named three key areas that are essential to the supply and affordability of carbon removal in the long term: technology, financing and commercialisation. You can find various pages and resources dedicated to sustainability and climate change on the website,
Annual sustainability reports
Each year, Shopify publishes its official Sustainability Report. This report goes into detail about the work that Shopify has committed to carbon removal over the previous twelve months. You can find useful data and statistics, as well as what’s planned for the future. Sharing this information with its users and the public shows a dedication to sustainability, and that the platform is holding itself accountable. In addition, Shopify also published an annual Climate Report, helping Shopify users to understand how the Sustainability Fund initiatives meet the needs of the climate and merchants.
Renewable power generation
The first Canadian-founded company to sign a purchase power agreement for its home office energy use across North America, Shopify has enabled the development of a new wind farm in an area with one of the most carbon-intensive energy grids on the continent.
Is Shopify environmentally friendly?
According to the website, since 2019 Shopify has procured enough green energy to account for its natural gas and electricity-related carbon footprint in Canada, as well as address travel-related emissions with a combination of sustainable aviation fuel and carbon removal.
While Shopify is by no means perfect and there’s still work to be done, it’s clear that the platform is making huge progress toward becoming carbon-neutral. Compared to other ecommerce platforms, Shopify appears to be the most transparent on the topic of sustainability, runs multiple initiatives/programs dedicated to the cause, and actively encourages its users to find more environmentally friendly ways to run their businesses.
Looking for ways to run a more sustainable ecommerce business? Shopify might be the right platform for you. Send us a message to find out more.
