Today, Shift launches the 2026 Impact Grant: $25,000 USD for a nonprofit, social venture, or early-stage startup reimagining what's possible at the intersection of technology and climate action. Applications are open now through July 2, 2026.
Key takeaways
- The Shift Impact Grant is back for 2026 under the theme of "Reimagining"
- Tech has a real climate footprint, and we're not looking away from that
- This year's grant is about funding people who are building something better, not just talking about it
- Last year's recipient, FireSwarm Solutions, used drone technology to help fight wildfires
- Through the Carbon Meter, Shift users have collectively offset 1,214 tonnes of CO₂ to date
- The winner receives $25,000 USD in unrestricted funding
- Applications are open now through July 2, 2026
We build tools to help people work better. We also build them inside an industry that has a real carbon footprint, and we think about that a lot.
The information and communication technology sector accounts for roughly 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire aviation industry (Columbia Climate School). Training a single AI model can emit hundreds of metric tons of CO₂, and we recently added AI to our browser. We're not sharing that to stir divisions. We're sharing it because doing better starts with being honest about where you stand. We believe sustainability and innovation can coexist, that you shouldn't have to choose one at the expense of the other, and we're actively working to live that out within our own company. We don't have it all figured out, but we're listening, learning, and committed to finding that balance every step of the way.
The question we keep coming back to isn't whether to keep building. It's how to build differently, and that belief is what's behind our 2026 Impact Grant theme: Reimagining.
It's also a belief worth holding onto right now. Major media companies have been quietly cutting entire teams dedicated to covering climate, and when that coverage shrinks, urgency tends to follow. We're not interested in going quiet on this.
What "reimagining" means to us
Why does innovation have to come at the expense of the planet? And why does protecting the planet have to mean slowing down? That's the whole idea behind our theme for the 2026 Impact Grant: Reimagining.
The answer isn't to stop building, stop using AI, or put a freeze on progress. It's to challenge the philosophy that's been driving the industry for decades: build fast, figure out the footprint later. We struggle with that trade-off ourselves, and adding AI to Shift is a real example of the tension we navigate. We don't think innovation should come at the expense of sustainability, or sustainability at the expense of innovation. Through Shift Gives and our Impact Grant, we're committed to doing our part in closing that gap.
Reimagining means asking different questions at the start of the process, not the end. It means treating sustainability as something you design with, not a box you check before launch. The most exciting work happening right now sits at exactly that intersection, where innovation and responsibility aren't in tension because they were never treated as separate things to begin with.
That's the kind of thinking this grant is designed to find and fund. And it's the kind of company we're actively working to become.
Carbon Meter: what a year of building looks like
Since launching in July 2025, the Shift community has collectively offset 1,214 tonnes of CO₂ through the Carbon Meter. That's equivalent to roughly 115,000 beef burgers, enough to feed every single fan at a sold-out NFL stadium (Poore & Nemecek, Science, 2018; Project Drawdown).
That number belongs to the community. Every person browsing with Shift is part of it. We're proud of where it's landed, and we're clear-eyed that it's a starting point. Carbon-neutral browsing isn't just another feature to us. It's part of a broader promise: that the next generation of tech needs to be built with climate in mind from the start. We've been learning and building in real time, and we'll be sharing more about that journey in the coming months.
Inside the Carbon Meter: How Shift estimates and offsets your digital carbon footprint
The engineer behind Shift’s Carbon Meter explains how the tool estimates your browsing footprint, what the model includes, where it falls short, and how these insights drive carbon-neutral browsing.
Read MoreLast year's recipient: FireSwarm Solutions
When FireSwarm Solutions applied for the 2025 Shift Impact Grant, they were building autonomous drones to assist in wildfire response. Fast-moving, underfunded, and solving a problem that's only getting more urgent, FireSwarm is exactly the kind of team this grant exists for and their work has continued to grow since.
We've seen firsthand how meaningful support at the right stage can accelerate innovation and real-world impact," said Melanie Bitner, Co-founder and CMO at FireSwarm Solutions. "Shift's support has played an important role in helping FireSwarm advance from early development toward operational deployment, supporting the continued refinement of our AI-enabled technology designed to assist communities and responders in increasingly complex disaster response environments.
FireSwarm is a clear example of what happens when clean tech funding actually reaches the people doing the work.
What the 2026 grant is for
The sustainability grants landscape is genuinely hard to navigate for small organizations. Too small for traditional funding, too early for most investors, and too focused on doing the actual work to spend months on compliance paperwork. This grant is designed with that reality in mind.
The application is low-barrier, the funding is unrestricted, and the support is real.
Who can apply:
- Nonprofits, social ventures, or early-stage startups
- Legally registered or fiscally sponsored in Canada or the U.S.
- Leading sustainability initiatives in tech, including climate tech, clean energy, circular economy, sustainable hardware, and conservation
- Action-driven, with clear goals and a defined plan for how funds will be used
This isn't funding for organizations with the loudest voice. It's green tech funding for environmental projects with genuine impact potential that might otherwise struggle to get off the ground.
What the winner receives:
- $25,000 USD in unrestricted funding
- Visibility across Shift's community and channels
The goal is momentum. We want to give the right team enough runway to accelerate their work and show what's possible.
Reimagining doesn't stop here
We're a tech company learning to hold two things at once. The drive to build, and the responsibility that comes with it. Our 2026 Impact Grant and theme of Reimagining is part of how we act on that, not just talk about it.
The sustainability conversation is losing ground in a lot of places but the problems haven't gotten smaller, and the people working on them haven't stopped. Reimagining means refusing to treat that work as optional, or seasonal, or dependent on whether it's trending. The Carbon Meter exists because we believe it matters and this grant exists for the same reason.
The people reimagining what's possible at the intersection of tech and climate are often the ones with the least runway, the least visibility, and the least time. If that sounds like you, or someone you know, this is for you.
Applications for the 2026 Shift Impact Grant are open now through July 2, 2026. Apply at shift.com/impact-grant. And if you know someone building something worth funding, send this their way.
We offset 615 tonnes in Q1 2026. Here's what that means.
Every quarter, we measure the CO₂ generated by browsing in Shift and offset it. In Q1 2026, that number was 615 tonnes. Here's what we did with it and why the work is just getting started.
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