THE CLIMATE PLEDGE 1/4

AMAZON’S GREEN MISSION

Whether or not you are one of Amazon’s 310 million users, you’ve heard the conversations around the commerce behemoth’s innovation in sourcing and logistics, its culture, and persistent accusations of greenwashing.

It’s so hard to make an informed decision. Are any of us checking ESG risk ratings before we shop? What data can we even trust? Researcher Sustainalytics, for instance, rates Amazon a 30.6, high on a scale from 0-40+. The thing is, sustainability targets are just that; future goals and a transition journey. At the same time, we hear the dire warnings. We see climate change impacts. We want business practices to change as fast as an Amazon drone can drop a package in our front yard.

Let’s start a conversation that’s not about ranking the companies we rely on or repeating news stories. Instead, let’s look at how they influence others, because you know who does have the time and resources to check out business practices? The competition.

In 2019, with a big shove from its employees, Amazon initiated The Climate Pledge, with Global Optimism. It committed to being net-zero by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement target, proclaiming its “scale and culture of innovation” would “help create a more sustainable future for all.”

It is also a $2 billion venture investment fund to support sustainable technologies. At the time, Forbes called it “neither a greenwash nor a game-changer,” but an important step in a transition that applies across its operations.

We’ll start with water.

Last year, Amazon committed to being water-positive, returning more water than it uses by 2030 by improving water efficiency; reusing water for cooling data centers, sending spent cooling water to farmers for irrigation, and returning 2.4 billion liters to communities through replenishment projects.

Those projects focus on water-stressed communities, where they restore watersheds to improve access, availability, and quality, and provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services.

Ocean impacts are being addressed with the reduction of single-use plastic and its shipping carbon footprint.

Plastic is not the worst thing for the environment. It’s the prevalence, inefficient recycling, and irresponsible disposal that send so much of it into our oceans.

You may have noticed those blue and white mailers are MIA, and may be surprised to learn that most recycling programs don’t accept them. Amazon recently upped its commitment to eliminating plastic packaging in its major markets including the U.S., the biggest market by far.

Its 2022 sustainability report shows 99% of mixed-material mailers containing plastic, used in the U.S. and Canada, have been replaced with recyclable paper alternatives. Single-use plastic across its global fulfillment centers dropped by 11.6% from 2021-22.

Here’s another perspective.

That’s more than 11 million metric tons, or 25 million pounds.

Its Global Mile team has contracted with Maersk ECO Delivery, loading shipping containers onto the first methanol-enabled cargo ship for its maiden voyage, with up to 95% lower emissions. Amazon is part of the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), intending to accelerate access to decarbonized ocean shipping.