Shopify Will Offset Carbon Emissions from Black Friday, Cyber Monday

This Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) will summon millions of order confirmation emails...and a spike in carbon emissions, the BBC reports.

Time to clean up. Shopify said Friday it will offset all carbon emissions from orders placed over the shopping weekend.

• Shopify’s offsets will back carbon-reducing tech and nature-based solutions like regenerative farming.

While holiday shopping has shifted forward this year, Shopify expects orders will peak on BFCM weekend. It also estimates that shipping one package emits one kg of carbon. That adds up when 25.5 million people shop at the same time.

Zoom out: So far, only the Priuses of apparel have made environmental moves for BFCM.

• Allbirds is raising prices by $1 this year and donating the proceeds to a climate action org.
• In 2016, Patagonia donated the proceeds of Black Friday sales to grassroots environmental agencies.

My takeaway: Shopify powers 1+ million storefronts, and not all of them are known for their Kermit-green supply chains. So its BFCM campaign could encourage other online retailers to clean up their policies.