Tech Giant Amazon Shows Progress in Sustainability Report
With an estimated shipment rate exceeding 1,000 packages per minute globally, Amazon's influence is undeniable.
It employs a workforce of more than 1.5 million and subsidiaries across industries.
But does its sheer size have significant impact on global sustainability goals?
“Looking ahead, we recognise that the path to being a more sustainable company will never be linear, because we’re charting new territory at an unprecedented scale,” says Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amazon, in the report.
“While we are firm on our goals, our approach will continuously evolve with emerging challenges and opportunities, as we’re seeing with the rapid adoption of AI.
“No matter what we’re faced with in the future, we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to sustainability and will continue to invest, innovate and obsess over our progress each year, with the same intensity and focus that has defined Amazon from Day One.”
Amazon’s carbon and energy in 2024
Amazon’s quest to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 faces challenges, with total emissions rising from 2023 to 2024 from 64.38 MTCO₂e to 68.25 MTCO₂e.
However, technological efficiencies have led to a decrease in carbon emissions per dollar of gross merchandise sales, from 75.6g CO₂3/$GMS to 72.6g CO₂e/$GMS, underscoring incremental progress through AI in supply chain optimisation.
Amazon's leap to utilising 100% renewable energy across global operations in 2023 marked a critical milestone, sustained into 2024, facilitated by AI-powered energy management systems.By 2030, Amazon envisions deploying at least 100,000 electric delivery vans, with significant advancements achieved as the number of vans increased from over 19,000 to over 31,000 in 2024.
In India, Amazon anticipates reaching its target of 10,000 electric vehicles by 2025, demonstrating the transformative impact of electrification underpinned by integrated data analytics.
The operational deployment of renewable wind and solar capacities worldwide further depicts Amazon's AI-backed strategic framework.
Launched in 2019 and co-founded by Amazon, The Climate Pledge aims to catalyse global action by rallying organisations around a shared commitment: achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
By 2024, participation had grown, with 549 signatories joining the initiative.
Sally Fouts, Director of The Climate Pledge at Amazon, says: “As a co-founder and signatory of The Climate Pledge, Amazon has helped build a framework for collective action and accountability.
“Reporting like this is a reminder that progress isn’t always linear—but it is essential. When businesses measure and report openly, they create clarity, trust and momentum for others to follow.”
In pursuit of operational efficiency, AWS data centres achieved a global power usage effectiveness of 1.15, outpacing the industry average of 1.25.
Waste and circularity at Amazon
Meanwhile, Amazon’s physical operations advanced efforts on waste reduction and circularity: 2024 saw the company eliminate all plastic air pillows from global packaging, substituting recyclable paper fillers.
This shift contributed to a 16.4% reduction in single-use plastic delivery packaging.
The company also improved its landfill diversion rate to 85%, following an upward trend from previous years.
In the United States and Europe, Amazon announced ongoing efforts to halve food waste by 2030 and donated the equivalent of 81 million meals in 2024.
Water stewardship emerged as a core focus, with Amazon setting a new goal in 2024: by 2027, the company aims to return more water to communities in India than it consumes in all its direct operations there.
AWS is targeting water positivity globally by 2030 and has reached 53% completion toward this objective.
Amazon’s community impact
Amazon’s community investments have also expanded.
The company has contributed more than US$2.2bn to create or preserve more than 21,000 affordable homes, with aspirations to increase this investment to US$3.6bn for more than 35,000 homes.
Additionally, AWS continues to provide cloud computing credits valued at US$60m to support global health organisations.
On the education and workforce side, free cloud computing skills training has reached 31 million people, while AI skills training has been accessed by more than two million individuals. Through Amazon Future Engineer programmes, more than 7.8 million students in underserved communities worldwide have been reached.
