Shopify pledges $6.6M annually to flight climate change

Shopify Inc. is putting its financial weight behind the fight against climate change.

Its chief executive officer, Tobias Lutke recently announced that the company has pledged at least $6.6 million annually through its new initiative dubbed the Shopify Sustainability Fund.

Lutke compared the process of solving the climate crisis to the process Shopify went through to enable entrepreneurs to create online stores.

“In an abstract way, Shopify has always used engineering skills to create market forces,” Lutke wrote in a blog post on Shopify’s website. “We used those skills to make it easier and cheaper to become entrepreneurs, and because of this, more entrepreneurs started more online stores. By improving the supply of simple tools for entrepreneurship, we reduced friction and increased demand drastically. If we want to solve the climate crisis, we collectively need to do the same for carbon sequestration – decrease the friction, in this case, the price, so demand can go up.”

This newest initiative will now house all of Shopify’s environmental investments, and Lutke said the goal is to increase the financial donations each year in relation to the company’s revenue growth.

The fund will have multiple purposes, including improving the sustainability of Shopify through processes like running all of its operations on renewable energies, investing in technologies that improve the state of the climate, and carbon sequestration, which is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the environment to slow down global warming. Shopify has pledged to use $1 million for each year.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Buckley Smith
Buckley Smithhttps://www.itbusiness.ca
Staff writer for IT World Canada. Covering the world of technology as it applies to business. Buckley is an avid sports fan who loves travel, food, and music. Can be contacted at bsmith@itwc.ca or 416-290-2000.

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now