Key takeaways
- Through this year's Impact Grant campaign, Shift has funded bold ideas, had honest conversations about our own footprint, and invested in the people building a more sustainable tech industry from the ground up.
- That work matters. And it's not enough on its own.
- Climate coverage in global media dropped 14% in 2025 and is down 38% since its peak in 2021. The conversation is getting quieter at the exact moment it needs to get louder.
- Government funding for climate programs is being cut, the institutional safety net is fraying, and the policy conversation is shrinking.
- Big Tech's actual emissions keep rising even as climate pledges stay on paper. The credibility gap is growing.
- The power to shift the industry norm sits with the companies that set it. We're asking them to use it.
- Applications for the 2026 Shift Impact Grant close this week.
This year, we set out to fund the people doing the hard work of reimagining what tech can do for the planet. We backed a bold idea in FireSwarm and watched it grow into something that belongs on the world stage. We had an honest conversation about what it means to build and launch Shift AI while holding ourselves accountable to its environmental cost, a conversation our CEO Neil wrote about and that most tech companies still won't touch. We funded science education, invested in the next generation of STEM talent, and offset two consecutive quarters of our community's browsing emissions.
That's what this campaign has been. Not a marketing exercise but a commitment we've been building out, piece by piece.
The mission to reimagine the relationship between tech and the environment is only just beginning. The Impact Grant is one expression of it. It's not the ceiling.
What we've built and what we've learned
When we backed FireSwarm, they were a focused early-stage company working on technology that most investors weren't paying enough attention to. Since then, they've been accepted into the NATO DIANA programme, named one of Foresight's top 50 climate tech companies in Canada, and landed a partnership with KONGSBERG. That's what unrestricted, early-stage support can unlock when it goes to the right people. That's what active impact investments actually look like in practice.
Neil's recent article on balancing innovation with responsibility named something most tech companies won't say out loud: that we launched a new AI product knowing it carried an environmental cost and we're still working through that tension. We’re choosing to talk about it because we think corporate accountability means being honest about the hard parts, not just the wins.
The education investments, the Big Little Science Centre's digital carbon curriculum ambitions, the iWIST scholarship, the UVic sponsorship, these are pipeline investments. The humans who will build with sustainability as a core constraint are being shaped right now and their development deserves funding.
Two consecutive quarters of carbon offsets, with 615 tonnes offset in Q1 alone, means this has become a rhythm. That's what we wanted. Not a one-time gesture but a practice.
We're proud of all of it. And we know it's not enough. The Shift community, the people who applied for this grant, the organizations doing incredible work with limited resources, they're not the problem and they're not the whole solution. The scale of what needs to change requires more voices, more resources, and more corporate accountability than any one company can bring to the table.
FireSwarm Solutions: from 2025 Impact Grant winner to one of Canada's top climate tech companies
FireSwarm Solutions, Shift's 2025 Impact Grant winner, is a British Columbia wildfire solutions company reimagining emergency response through autonomous technology. Since being selected, they've earned a spot in NATO DIANA's 2026 Challenge Programme and been recognized as one of Canada's top climate tech companies by Foresight Canada.
Read MoreThe conversation is getting quieter when it needs to get louder
Here's what's happening around us while we're doing this work.
Media is pulling back. Global climate coverage dropped 14% in 2025 compared to 2024, and is down 38% from its peak in 2021.¹ ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 8 hours and 25 minutes of climate coverage across all of 2025, a 35% decline from the year before.² CBS laid off most of its climate journalism team in late 2025. The Washington Post let go of at least 14 journalists covering climate and environment. Coverage of individual weather events is holding on. Sustained, systemic accountability journalism is not.
Government investment is shrinking. The EPA's proposed budget for FY2027 would cut the agency's funding by 52% compared to enacted 2026 levels, the lowest proposed allocation since the Reagan administration.³ The $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was rescinded in 2025.⁴ These aren't budget trims. They're structural withdrawals from the conversation.
The tech industry's accountability gap is widening. Google's emissions jumped nearly 50% between 2020 and their most recent reporting period. Amazon's rose 33%. Meta's more than 60%. Microsoft's more than 23%.⁵ All four continued to publish progress toward their climate commitments during the same period. A 2025 analysis from the NewClimate Institute found that despite a few isolated improvements, major tech companies are performing poorly to very poorly on most climate strategy elements.⁶ Data centers now account for approximately 4.6% of total US electricity use, with that share projected to nearly triple by 2028.⁵
¹ Media and Climate Change Observatory, CU Boulder · ² Media Matters · ³ Chemical & Engineering News · ⁴ EPA.gov · ⁵ Fortune · ⁶ NewClimate Institute
These are observations that paint a clear picture: the institutional infrastructure that holds the climate conversation together is weakening at every level.
Big Tech, we're calling you in
This isn't a callout. It's an invitation, and we mean that genuinely.
We know many of the largest companies in tech are doing real work. Commitments have been made, programs have been built, and some of that is making a real difference. But the gap between what the pledges say and what the emissions data shows is growing. And right now, with media coverage shrinking, government funding pulling back, and the policy conversation getting quieter, the companies with the largest platforms carry an outsized responsibility to fill that vacuum.
When the biggest names in tech speak, they shift what becomes normal for the industry. That influence isn't neutral. It can be pointed at something that matters.
What we're asking isn't for more commitments. It's this: use your platform to amplify the conversation. Fund the green startups and climate organizations doing work the market isn't rewarding fast enough. Publish your real numbers, not market-based accounting. And be willing to own your wins and your shortcomings with your full chest.
How does technology help sustainability? That's not a rhetorical question. It's an innovation challenge and the companies with the most resources to shape that answer are the ones we're talking to.
What this grant represents
The Shift Impact Grant is a proof of concept. It's what it looks like when a tech company decides that some of its resources belong in the hands of people who are already reimagining the relationship between technology and the environment. It's annual, unrestricted, and it compounds, as FireSwarm's story clearly shows.
We hope it works as a template. Not just for other browsers or small tech companies, but for anyone building at scale who hasn't yet connected the innovation they're proud of to the environment they're building it on top of. The carbon footprint of the tech industry isn't someone else's problem, it's ours as a collective. The companies going green in meaningful ways aren't doing it because it's easy, they’re doing it because they've decided it matters.
That's what we've decided. And we'd love for more of the industry to join us.
This is the last week to apply
We've spent this year backing bold people, having honest conversations, and trying to keep this conversation alive. We've learned that the work is worth doing and that it doesn't end when the campaign does.
If you're building something that reimagines what tech can do for the environment, whether you're an early-stage company, a research initiative, a nonprofit, or an educator, this grant is for you. $25,000 USD of unrestricted funding to keep doing the work.
Applications for the 2026 Shift Impact Grant in exactly one week. Apply now at shift.com/impact-grant.
The 2026 Shift Impact Grant: $25,000 for climate action
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.
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