Shopify sustainability score: 47/100
Better than 76% of E-commerce / Online Retail
Leading practice starts at 60. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Shopify is a Canadian e-commerce platform enabling merchants to build and operate online stores. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Ottawa, it processes over $292 billion in gross merchandise volume across millions of global merchants.
More about Shopify
As a digital infrastructure company, it operates with a distributed workforce and cloud-hosted infrastructure.
Founded 2006Head office Ottawa, CanadaStaff ~8,300 (2023)Revenue ~$8.88B USD (2024)Website ↗
Shopify operates carbon-neutral through renewable energy and permanent carbon removal, but its climate strategy is fundamentally incomplete. Scope 3 emissions—the vast majority of its footprint through merchant operations and facilitated commerce—remain largely unmeasured. No SBTi targets, no net-zero commitment year, no biodiversity policy, and minimal disclosure on water and waste undermine credibility despite genuine carbon removal investments.
Shopify scores 47/100 (Making progress) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified May 2026.
That places Shopify joint 236th of 1,023 companies scored, and joint 5th of 26 in E-commerce / Online Retail.
Limited evidence. This score rests on 5 sources, 40% of them published by the company itself. Every source cited here passed the same quality checks as any other score: all live, none from data aggregators. There is simply less of it.
What is Shopify doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Controversies & Red Flags and Carbon Footprint: Operations (10/10, 7/10). Weakest on Carbon Footprint: Supply Chain and Nature & Biodiversity Impact (3/10, 3/10).
Where Shopify lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Emissions from its supply chainAssess where its supply-chain emissions come from.
- Its effect on natureAssess its effect on nature and publish a basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles wasteShow active waste reduction, reuse or repair.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations7/10Its own emissions aren't independently verified or tracked over several years.
- Emissions from its supply chain3/10No assessment of where its supply-chain emissions come from.
- Whether its emissions are falling6/10No consistent fall over several years across its operations and supply chain.
- How clean its energy is7/10Less than 90% of its energy shown to be renewable.
- Its effect on nature3/10No assessment of its effect on nature, and no basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles waste3/10No active waste reduction, reuse or repair shown.
- Its effect on water3/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
- Its climate targets4/10Its targets aren't science-based or committed to the Science Based Targets initiative.
- How openly it reports4/10No dedicated sustainability role, board oversight or public report.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Shopify's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleWhat evidence is Shopify's score based on?
5 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
40% of them were published by Shopify itself; the rest come from independent sources.
Scored on 4 April 2026 under an earlier version of our method. We're re-checking it under the current method.
This company's public sustainability disclosure is limited. This score is based on the 5 verified sources cited below, rather than padded to a standard count.
Limited data coverage. This assessment is based on 5 sources, 40% of which are self-reported by the company. Scores may change as independent evidence becomes available.
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
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How does Shopify compare with other e-commerce / online retail companies?
Where Shopify sits among e-commerce / online retail peers.
Among the 26 major e-commerce / online retail brands we've scored, Shopify is tied =5th of 26, with 2 others.
Who scores higher in E-commerce / Online Retail?
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Shopify.
Refurbed's business model directly addresses e-waste and resource consumption through verified lifecycle analysis, but the company lacks corporate emissions reporting, science-based targets, and formal Scope 3 inventory.
See the breakdown →Gousto's footprint was 330,508 tCO2e in 2024, 99.5% of it from its supply chain, mainly the food it buys, and 18% below 2022.
See the breakdown →Abel & Cole last published its own emissions for 2022: Scope 1 and 2 of 2,798 tonnes and Scope 3 of 29,825 tonnes, none of it third-party assured.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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