Stripe Climate: Carbon Removal for Businesses

Payments leader Stripe revealed last year a commitment to dedicate $1 million annually to businesses developing technologies for carbon removal, with the initial investments announced this past May. The company is now broadening this initiative with a new offering designed to encourage its customer base to participate in funding these crucial efforts.

The company today introduced Stripe Climate, a new feature that allows businesses utilizing Stripe to easily establish automatic contributions, calculated as a percentage of each transaction—a percentage determined by the individual company—with the resulting funds added to a pool supplementing Stripe’s direct investments in carbon reduction initiatives.

Currently, four companies are included in this investment portfolio: CarbonCure (which permanently eliminates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by injecting it into concrete); Climeworks, focused on constructing carbon removal facilities; Project Vesta, which has undertaken projects such as “green sand” deployment for carbon removal on beaches; and Charm Industrial, specializing in the conversion of waste biomass into bio-oil. These represent ambitious undertakings—technologies that are not yet fully established and may prove costly to implement—but, similar to groundbreaking scientific endeavors, substantial capital will be required to assess their viability and potential.

It is anticipated that this list of supported projects will evolve over time, with additions and potential removals as projects progress.

At present, companies participating in Stripe Climate do not have the ability to direct where their contributions are allocated; instead, their funds follow the investment strategy employed by Stripe itself.

Stripe Climate is available at no cost, and Stripe reports that the 25 companies involved in the closed beta testing phase—including Flexport, Substack, Flipcause and OpenSnow—have collectively contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the program.

“We founded Substack on the belief that, despite the challenges facing the media landscape, significant opportunities exist for those who embrace optimism. We share this same outlook regarding climate change,” stated Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, in a press release. “We are moving beyond simply acknowledging the problem. We aim to demonstrate a path toward a brighter future—and, importantly, to empower all Substack writers to join us. Stripe’s climate initiative is invaluable because it eliminates obstacles to positive change. It simplifies and incentivizes responsible action. We are proud to be a part of this effort.”

Stripe Climate aligns with several key principles central to the company’s ethos.

Stripe—currently valued at $36 billion—has established itself as a leading payments processor, offering a straightforward service that developers can integrate into websites and applications using APIs with minimal coding. This simplicity has fueled rapid growth and attracted a diverse user base, ranging from individual entrepreneurs to large corporations.

The company is applying this same principle of ease-of-use to Stripe Climate: recognizing that many organizations and individuals are committed to environmental investment but lack clarity on how to begin or execute it efficiently, this tool provides a streamlined solution integrated directly into their existing payment processes.

“Many of the pressing social issues we face today are examples of collective action problems,” explained Nan Ransohoff, Stripe’s head of climate, in an interview. “Climate change is a prime example. Coordination can be complex and expensive. Can we simplify the process of bringing Stripe businesses together to achieve a greater collective impact? Even a small improvement in this area could significantly benefit the planet.”

This initiative also reflects Stripe’s broader strategic direction. While core payment processing remains its foundation, the company has been expanding its suite of services for businesses, encompassing incorporation assistance, fraud prevention, analytics, and financing options based on platform activity. Recently, it also completed its largest acquisition to date, purchasing Paystack in Nigeria to expand its presence in regions like Africa.

The objective is not solely to generate additional revenue from customers through enhanced services, but also to foster stronger customer relationships, making them less inclined to switch providers if their data is integrated across multiple facets of their operations.

Stripe Climate will not directly generate revenue for Stripe or its customers—in fact, it facilitates charitable contributions—but it serves as a powerful demonstration of goodwill that could strengthen customer loyalty and brand perception.

Ransohoff indicated that future plans include extending Stripe Climate to allow companies to offer contribution options to their own customers during the checkout process—similar to the donation prompts frequently encountered on various websites when completing purchases.