Amazon ($AMZN) expects to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its 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.
In terms of seeing and maintaining a companywide sustainability focus, the name to know is Kara Hurst (pictured above), VP of worldwide sustainability at Amazon. Hurst communicates regularly about the company's march toward net-zero carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) business now promotes dozens of Partner Sustainability Solutions to help customers "build towards net-zero carbon, mitigate climate risk, and drive business growth," the cloud giant assets. And the AWS Clean Energy Accelerator aligns energy organizations to work with startups on "solving their clean energy and decarbonization challenges."
Challenges: Still, the e-commerce company and its cloud business also face heavy scrutiny on multiple sustainability fronts.
For instance, some employees are pushing the company to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 -- the date that cloud rival Microsoft is targeting. In some ways, the comparison vs. Microsoft is not fair. After all, most of Microsoft's business now involves subscription-based, cloud-delivered software. In stark contrast, Amazon's business depends heavily on global distribution and transportation supply chains -- planes, trains and automobiles that offer rapid delivery of physical products to millions of customers worldwide.
The timeline below, update regularly, further explains Amazon's sustainability strategy, key milestones, customer engagements, partner integrations and more. Check back regularly for updates.
March 2025: Sustainability News Developments
- Greenwashing Lawsuit?: Consumers in four states filed a proposed class action against Amazon, accusing the company of greenwashing by misleading consumers about the sustainability of the company’s Amazon Basics line of paper products, law firm Kelley Drye reported.
- Carbon Credit Service: Amazon is expanding its Sustainability Exchange resource hub to include a carbon credits investment service.
- AWS Partners: The AWS Partner Network now lists various sustainability partners in such areas as Carbon and ESG; Climate and Nature; Energy Transition; IT Infrastructure and Architecture; Sustainable Operations; and Sustainable Value Chain.
- Software - IT Carbon Accounting: The Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) has certified the Dynatrace Cost & Carbon Optimization app. The certification essentially confirms that Dynatrace's software "is a reliable estimation system for calculating the operational GHG emissions of IT infrastructure in cloud and on-premises environments," the SDIA said. The app allows customers to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and on-premises host instances.
- Expanding Nuclear Capacity: Major companies -- including Amazon, Google and Meta -- signed a pledge to at least triple nuclear capacity by 2050, according to the World Nuclear Association.
February 2025: Sustainability News Developments
- Partnership - Energy Infrastructure and Cloud Services: Tata Power is partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate India's transition to a "greener, smarter, and more consumer-centric energy ecosystem," the companies said.
- United Kingdom - Nuclear Energy: X-Energy wants Britain to provide clarity on financial and regulatory support before building nuclear power plants in the country, The Times reported. Without such clarity, X-Energy may consider shifting its focus to alternative countries, the report said. Key X-Energy investors include Amazon.
- More CSRD Pushback: The American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, whose members include Ford Motor Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Amazon, is calling on the EU to delay and even halt major planks of its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Bloomberg reported.
- Death of DEI?: Accenture is the latest IT-focused company to end its diversity and inclusion goals, Reuters reported. Meta (parent of Facebook), Alphabet (parent of Google) and Amazon also scrapped their DEI goals amid Trump's return to the presidency, the report noted.
- Jeff Bezos Fund Ends SBTi Support: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ $10-billion Earth Fund has ended its support for the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the main verifier of corporate climate targets, the Financial Times reported and Bloomberg summarized. SBTi received criticism when it explored a potential carbon credit recognition plan in 2024. The criticism ultimately triggered an SBTi CEO transition.
- United States - Washington Data Center Study: Washington Governor Bob Ferguson is forming a workgroup to explore the impact of data centers in the state. The executive order surfaces amid growing demand for AI data centers -- which has pressured energy suppliers nationwide. Amazon and Microsoft, among others, have a heavy data center presence in Washington. Under the executive order, the workgroup has until December 1 of 2025 to submit its findings and recommendations, GeekWire reported.
- Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): Amazon and energy supplier Iberdrola have expanded their strategic partnership, which originally surfaced in 2022. The new agreement involves solar and wind energy across five countries.
- Asia Pacific Data Centers: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has begun using low-carbon concrete in the construction of new data centers in Japan, Data Center Dynamics reported.
January 2025: Sustainability News Developments
December 2024: Sustainability News Developments
- Distribution: An Amazon fulfillment center in Sacramento, California, is the first-ever to earn the Zero Carbon Certification from the International Living Future Institute, the e-commerce company said.
- Circular IT: Through Amazon's re:Cycle Reverse Logistics hub, the company is diverting more than 99% of decommissioned hardware from landfills.
- Partners of the Year: The AWS Sustainability Partner of the Year for 2024 included the following honorees:
- Global: Winner – Capgemini
- NAMER: Winner – McKinsey and Company
- LATAM: Winner – CI&T
- EMEA: Winner – Lambert Labs
- APJ: Winner – Infosys
- GCR: Winner – Tuya Global Inc
- AI Data Centers and Energy Efficiency: Amazon announced several steps to drive AI innovation while improving data center availability and energy efficiency.
- Partner of the Year - IT Services: AWS has named Capgemini as its sustainability partner of the year for 2024. The honor highlights the Capgemini Emissions Experience Centre (EEC), which is an "established co-innovation ecosystem with AWS to support energy companies in achieving net-zero objectives."
- Partnership - Cloud Operations: Cloudera and AWS are partnering to deliver "cost efficient and sustainable infrastructure for AI and analytics," the two companies said.
- Data Centers - Startup Relationship: Amazon.com plans to pilot a new carbon-removal material for data centers, Reuters reported. The effort involves a startup called Orbital Materials.
- Conference: At the AWS re:Invent 2024 conference, dozens of guest speakers (and roughly 25 content sessions will focus on sustainability, energy efficiency, carbon reduction and net-zero business strategies.
More: Continue to the next page for earlier sustainability updates.
