The Ottawa-headquartered commerce firm will pay nine additional firms to capture, store or otherwise withdraw more than 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere long term and another 80,000-plus tonnes temporarily. Shopify said its sustainability fund has now committed $32 million to such projects. (The Logic)
Talking point: The firm is trying to act as a market maker for carbon-removal technologies, showing that there are commercial customers for these startups, in the hopes that other industrial users will follow. The latest batch includes Vancouver-based Carbin Minerals, which aims to trap carbon dioxide in mine tailings ponds. Shopify has sought to green its own operations, but its primary business is helping merchants sell things, mostly real-world ones that are shipped to buyers. The company funds tree planting in Senegal to offset the emissions of purchases made via its Shop Pay checkout feature, and also typically buys a megaround of carbon removal to compensate for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday consumption extravaganza.