A contractor working for Amazon.com cleans a supply truck in Richmond, California, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Amazon lowered its carbon emissions for the primary time because it started disclosing the determine 4 years in the past.
In its annual sustainability report issued Tuesday, the e-retailer stated its actions emitted the equal of 71.27 million metric tons of carbon dioxide final 12 months. That is down 0.4% from 2021, when it reported a carbon footprint of 71.54 million metric tons. Emissions are nonetheless up by roughly 40% from 2019, the 12 months Amazon first started disclosing its carbon footprint.
The corporate additionally reported its carbon depth, which measures emissions per greenback of gross sales, fell 7% between 2021 and 2022, and has fallen by 24% since 2019.
“We achieved this largely by enhancing effectivity throughout our enterprise and persevering with our funding in renewable power,” Amazon said within the report.
Scope 2 emissions, which accounts for emissions from electrical energy use, dropped 29% between 2021 and 2022, the corporate stated.
Amazon has spent tens of millions on wind and photo voltaic tasks to energy a few of its warehouses, information facilities and workplaces, and not too long ago turned the world’s largest company purchaser of renewable power. It is also pledged for its total enterprise to be internet zero carbon by 2040.
Amazon stated its scope 3 emissions, which incorporates oblique sources like constructing development and third-party transportation, fell 0.7% in 2022 after three consecutive years of will increase.
The corporate has labored to impress its supply fleet, together with by buying 100,000 Rivian electrical supply vans, which it has stated will hit roads by 2030. The corporate now has greater than 9,000 electrical automobiles in its world fleet, and a pair of,600 Rivian vans in North America, in accordance with the report.
Amazon’s local weather report and the methods it measures its personal environmental report have confronted scrutiny, nonetheless. Workers and shareholder teams have raised considerations that Amazon is not assembly its local weather commitments, whereas environmental justice teams have criticized the corporate’s speedy warehouse growth, which they argue generates disproportionate environmental harms on minority communities the place its warehouses are sometimes concentrated.
Amazon recently eliminated one among its local weather targets, known as Cargo Zero, whereby the corporate pledged to make half of all its shipments carbon-neutral by 2030. Amazon stated it “not made sense” to have a separate aim that utilized to 1 space of its enterprise, and that it could as an alternative give attention to the Local weather Pledge.
On Tuesday, Amazon stated it could even be updating its provide chain requirements to require suppliers to frequently share their carbon emissions information, and set emissions reductions targets. The change will take impact beginning subsequent 12 months.
