Amazon has committed to reach ‘net zero carbon’ by 2040 (Amazon 2020b). This target encompasses emissions across the company’s entire value chain, including Amazon-operated and third-party freight, production of private-label products and customer trips to Amazon stores. The organisation aims to achieve its target through investments in electrification and renewable energy, use of recyclable and minimum waste packaging and by the provision of opportunities to trade in, recycle, or repair Amazon devices and products. It will purchase offsets for any remaining emissions.

The organisation’s Shipment Zero initiative aims to make 50 per cent of shipments from fulfilment centres to the customer net zero by 2030. Fulfilment centres will obtain 100 per cent of their power from renewable sources, through implementation of rooftop solar, supplemented by investment in large-scale wind and solar projects. By August 2019, Amazon had 66 renewable energy projects, including 51 solar rooftops. Amazon is working with its suppliers to implement carbon neutral packaging by using recyclable materials and minimising the size and weight of packaging. The organisation has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles and is placing delivery centres closer to customer populations to improve the overall energy efficiency of its deliveries.

In September 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism launched The Climate Pledge, with Amazon as its first signatory (Amazon 2020a). The Climate Pledge calls on signatories ‘to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement goal of 2050’.