Businesses today are faced with a paradox: a need to both keep up with consumer demand, while also signaling to customers that they are committed to sustainability.
In the past six years, there has been a71% increase in online searches globallyfor “sustainable goods,” and in the past year,44% of consumers globallychose to buy from brands that have a clear commitment to sustainability.
Customers stay loyal for longer to brands that offer clear commitments to sustainability—something that has been shown to increase the lifetime value of a single customer by 306%.
Because of this increase in brand loyalty, merchants are responding. Thirty-five percent of surveyed companies are now actively measuring or tracking their emissions, and 23% are actively working to offset emissions.
But offsetting emissions is only half the battle.The other half is actuallyremovingthe carbon already in the sky.
Brands that offer their support to carbon removal technologies will make an even bigger impact in the fight against climate change, and will be able to show an even stronger commitment to sustainability to their customers.
This is whyShopify’s Planet appwas created: to let businesses selling on Shopify directly fund and accelerate innovative carbon removal technology, while also signaling to their customers that they value sustainability.
Table of Contents
- Introducing Shopify’s Planet app
- Supporting world-first carbon removal technology
- How big is the carbon removal challenge?
- Ready to help accelerate carbon removal?
Introducing Shopify’s Planet app
Planet is a new app from Shopify that powers carbon-neutral shipping on all orders and comes with storefront icons that allow merchants to visualize and promote their commitment to carbon removal.
With Planet, Shopify stores become drivers for change. Every time an order is processed and shipped, a small contribution is made to purchase carbon removal credits from companies that are a part of theShopify Sustainability Fund, creating technologies and solutions that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it long term.
Each company we’ve chosen to support is working toward a shared goal of finding innovative ways to create a more sustainable future. They’ve all created solutions that could truly revolutionize their sector and make an impactful contribution to reversing climate change at scale.
Keep reading to the end of this article to learn about some of the companies that will receive support from the Planet app and the challenges they’re facing.
How it works
Every month, Planet tracks the total emissions generated by your shipped orders.
The Planet app automatically calculates your monthly carbon removal cost—through either natured-based or high-tech-based solutions—based on the subscription you selected after installation.
The cost per order is low—between 3.5¢ and 15¢—and goes toward purchasing carbon removal credits to ensure that all orders for the month are truly carbon neutral.
Through the Planet app, you also have access to a dashboard that showcases the real-time impact of their efforts over time.
This dashboard lets you track:
- Number of carbon-neutral deliveries
- Total deliver distance
- Carbon removed (by weight)
- Carbon removal cost
- Deliveries over time
All of this information can be shared publicly with customers.
This, along with the dynamic Planet app badge that displays on your Shopify storefront, lets you demonstrate to customers that your business is taking a stand on sustainability and carbon removal.
How much it costs
Brands can choose from three pricing tiers when they install the Planet app in their online store. These tiers vary based on what the business pays per order and the types of carbon removal technology that they fund.
The pricing tiers are:
- Decade plan
- Ship carbon neutral
- Remove atmospheric carbon
- Store carbon for 10+ years
- Solutions like reforestation and soil carbon storage
- Century plan
- Ship carbon neutral
- Remove atmospheric carbon
- Store carbon for 10–1,000+ years
- Mix of Decade and Millennium plan solutions
- Millennium plan
- Ship carbon neutral
- Remove atmospheric carbon
- Store carbon for primarily 1,000+ years
- Solutions like ocean-based removal and direct air capture
Keep reading to learn more about the companies that each of these subscription tiers help to finance.
Supporting world-first carbon removal technology
Carbon removal comes in many forms. It can either be accelerated through the powerful natural systems around us or manufactured through innovative new technologies (or a combination of both).
In either case, the goal is to remove carbon from the atmosphere in a scalable manner and then store it safely for long periods of time. The companies that do this are driven by some of the most innovative minds in the world and are making Earth-changing contributions to our societies.
Here are just a few of them.
Grassroots Carbon
Grassroots Carbon connects companies looking to purchase carbon removal credits with certified landowners who are able to sell nature-based soil carbon storage.
It is supported through the Decade subscription plan.
Running Tide
Running Tide is building technology that restores and accelerates natural processes in the ocean, helping to leverage the world’s largest carbon sink.
It is supported through the Century and Millennium subscription plans.
Remora
Remora’s compact, mobile technology captures at least 80% of a semi truck’s carbon emission directly from the tailpipe, which is then sold to end users who can store it for the long term.
It is supported through the Century and Millennium subscription plans.
Heirloom
Heirloom’s direct air capture technology enhances the carbon mineralization process—driven by naturally occurring minerals, one of the planet’s most vital carbon sinks—to absorb CO2 from the air in days, rather than years.
It is supported through the Century and Millenium subscription plans.
Planetary
Planetary's technology speeds up the natural process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by adding safe “antacids” to local ocean areas. Their process of producing antacids using mine waste also generates green hydrogen and battery metals, which are key to reducing emissions from transportation.
It is supported through the Century and Millennium subscription plans.
Charm
Charm uses plants to capture CO2 from the atmosphere by converting biomass into a stable, carbon-rich liquid that it then pumps deep underground. This removes CO2 permanently from the atmosphere.
It is supported through the Century and Millennium subscription plans.
How big is the carbon removal challenge?
To keep global temperaturesfrom increasing beyond the 1.5°C threshold laid out in the Paris Agreement—thereby avoiding the worst impacts of climate change—the world needs to get to net-zero carbon emissions by around 2050andactively remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
How much carbon do we need to remove?Scientists predictthat up to 10 gigatonnes of CO2—a gigatonne is 1,000,000,000 tonnes—need to be removed from the atmosphere per year by 2050. That’s in addition to hitting the goal of net-zero emissions worldwide.
To do that, we need toempower entrepreneurs and innovatorswho are working to harness both natural and technological strategies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The technology exists, but the scale isn’t quite there yet.
The problem is the world is not standing still while these technologies catch up.
地球是一个way merchants can help accelerate this world-changing research, while also signaling to their customers that they take sustainability seriously.
Ready to help accelerate carbon removal?
Help fund some of the world’s most promising carbon capture technology. Head over to thePlanet app pagenow to get started.
