AWS Supply Chain Cloud Software: Sustainability Capabilities Coming in 2024

Amazon plans to enhance the AWS Supply Chain software platform with sustainability capabilities in 2024, the cloud service provider (CSP) said during the AWS re:Invent 2023 conference in Las Vegas.

The overall effort involves four new capabilities:

1. AWS Supply Chain Supply Planning: This machine learning (ML) capability will allow users to more accurately "predict the right levels of inventory needed across facilities."
2. AWS Supply Chain N-Tier Visibility: Here, customers’ will gain deeper visibility into direct relationships as well as multiple tiers of external trading partners, the company said.
3. Amazon Q in AWS Supply Chain: This generative AI assistant, powered by Amazon Bedrock, will provide "a natural language interface in the AWS Supply Chain application so that customers can query data within the AWS Supply Chain Data Lake," the company said.
4. AWS Supply Chain Sustainability: This will allow "sustainability professionals to obtain documents and datasets from their supplier network," the company added.

AWS Supply Chain Sustainability Features, Pricing, Availability

Dig a little deeper, and Amazon says the software will allow customers to:

1. Request, collect, and export artifacts, such as product life cycle assessments, certificates on product safety, or reports on hazardous substances used, at any point in the supply chain.
2. Upload their own data collection form for their suppliers to document any sustainability issue, utilize a standard workflow process to send their suppliers reminders to answer data requests, and communicate necessary changes based on supplier responses.

The overall system will "help customers provide compliance information for environmental and social governance (ESG) regulations with a single, auditable record of the data," the company added.

Amazon did not announce exact availability or pricing for the new capabilities.

True believers in the overall AWS Supply Chain software platform include Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Equipment Depot and the Woodside global energy company, according to statements from each business. Of those firms, BSG specifically mentioned efforts to help customers address sustainability.

Amazon Sustainability Strategy: Net Zero Deadline, Goals

Meanwhile, the overall Amazon and AWS sustainability strategy continues to press forward. The effort, led by Head of Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst, calls for net-zero carbon emissions across the business by 2040. Moreover, Amazon is marching toward powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target, the company said in January 2023.

Still, critics have called for Amazon to more aggressively pursue and disclose its Scope 3 carbon emissions, and skeptics note that promotions like Amazon Prime Day promote mass consumerism -- perhaps at the expense of sustainability.