For the first time in the five years that Amazon has shared its carbon emissions, the cloud computing, online retail and entertainment giant has stopped the growth of its footprint, marking a 0.4% reduction in 2022.
In its 2022 Sustainability Report released today, the Seattle-based company also reported that its carbon intensity — a measure of emissions against gross sales — decreased 7% while revenue went up.
At 71.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted last year, Amazon’s footprint is roughly twice that of Ireland, and less than Washington state, which emitted more than 102 million metric tons in 2019.
In an opening letter to the report, Kara Hurst, Amazon’s worldwide sustainability vice president, obliquely acknowledged that progress might appear slow going.
“We remain confident in our approach,” Hurst wrote. “You might not see all of the large-scale changes that we’re making reflected imminently; our company thinks long-term.”
Highlights from the report:
- The company is the largest commercial purchaser worldwide of renewable power for the third year in a row: 90% of its electricity consumption comes from renewable sources.
- Amazon has more than 5,000 Rivian electric delivery vehicles on the road in North America, with a goal of reaching 100,000 by 2030.
- In India, it has 3,800 electric vehicles deployed, with a goal of reaching 10,000 by 2025.
- The company has one of the largest value chains globally and beginning next year will require its suppliers to regularly share their emissions data and set reduction goals.
- Last year it pledged to become water positive by the decade’s end, meaning it returns more fresh water to the environment and communities than its operations use.
- Amazon expanded the number of items certified as Climate Pledge Friendly from 20,000 when the program launched in 2020 to 500,000 today.
Amazon also reported that it reduced its use of single-use plastic by 11.6% and is phasing out its “padded bags containing plastics” — which would include its blue-and-white bubble mailers that are difficult to recycle.
“If Amazon follows through, this is good news for the oceans,” said Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of the environmental organization Oceana, in a statement. “The world’s largest retailer is now using less single-use plastic and has just committed to phase out padded bags containing plastic globally.”
In 2019, then-CEO Jeff Bezos vowed the company would become carbon neutral by 2040 and created the Climate Pledge — an initiative that calls on other corporations to join it in slashing their greenhouse gas emissions. More than 390 organizations have signed on.
But there’s tough work ahead.
Emissions are tracked by different categories: scope 1, which includes carbon produced from an organization's direct operations; scope 2, which captures electricity use; and scope 3, which is the largest source for many companies and includes indirect sources such as supply chains, emissions from customer use of Amazon products, building construction, and third-party transportation.
Scope 1 emissions grew by 10.7% last year, despite putting more electric delivery trucks on the road. Amazon's report explains that the increase was due to business growth and more transportation provided by Amazon's own fleet instead third-party drivers, as well as a change in emissions calculations.
Some of these emissions include hard to decarbonize sources such as air freight and cargo shipping. These transportation sectors are exploring cleaner, alternative fuels, but it will be years before those emissions are curtailed.
Scope 2 emissions saw the largest percentage drop, racking up a 30% decline. This is the most straightforward source to reduce, namely by paying for renewable energy projects.
Scope 3 emissions are trickiest given the sources are often less in Amazon's control. These emissions shrank a modest 0.7% in part due to Amazon providing more of its own shipping of goods so that carbon debt shifted to scope 1. The company also stopped construction on some of its projects, including five towers in downtown Bellevue, Wash.
While the company says it's making progress on its climate goals, an activist group last week targeted its Seattle headquarters, spray painting the adjacent roadway with a message addressed to CEO Andy Jassy reading, “AMAZON: PRIME POLLUTER. #DELIVER CHANGE.”
The graffiti appeared the day after Amazon's two-day Prime Day sales event. Stand.earth took credit for the message, saying it was protesting the company's decision to roll back its Shipment Zero pledge to make 50% of its shipments carbon net zero by 2030, pushing the deadline to 2040.
Back in May, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice helped organize an employee walkout. The group called on Amazon to put climate “at the forefront” of its decision-making, and described the company’s Climate Pledge as “broken, in so many ways.”
Hurst countered those criticism in her introduction to the report, touting the positive corporate example that Amazon is setting and highlighting its ability to send pro-climate signals to business sectors including power producers, construction and others.
"When we look back at this moment in time, my hope is this: that our teams are immensely proud of the ambitious challenge we took on and the solutions we implemented, and that we have continued to build on our progress to keep thinking even bigger and moving even faster," Hurst wrote.
Editor's note: Story updated July 19 to add information on Amazon's plastics reduction efforts and Oceana's response.
