The action against Amazon today is also sparked by the company’s delay in meeting a promise called the Climate Pledge that would reduce all of its emissions to zero by 2040. More than 400 other companies have now taken the same commitment. Earlier in 2019, Amazon also launched Shipment Zero, a promise to have half of shipments to customers produce net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Last week, Amazon abandoned Shipment Zero, saying it had decided to incorporate those goals into the Climate Pledge. Yet the company’s own sustainability reports show that its emissions have increased by 40 percent since it made this commitment. Organizers of today’s strike also say that a considerable portion of the air pollution produced by Amazon’s distribution network falls on communities with high proportions of people of color.
“We continue to work hard to reach net zero carbon by 2040,” says Glasser, saying Amazon is on track to reach 100% renewable energy by 2025 and plans to reduce packaging waste and to decarbonize its transport network with electric vehicles and alternative solutions. fuels. He says the company is building its facilities in areas designated for warehouses and is seeking input from community stakeholders. “For companies like ours, which are energy intensive and have very large physical transportation, packaging and construction assets, this will take time.”
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, the group that led the 2019 walkout and co-organized today’s protest, claims the company is guilty of greenwashing. “I feel like I have a responsibility and some power as a worker at this great company where I can make a difference and make Amazon the most progressive, forward-thinking company I want to work for,” says a Seattle-based employee who is joining the walkout today.
The NewClimate Institute, a climate policy nonprofit that evaluates companies’ climate commitments, gave Amazon a poor rating earlier this year and says its strategy appears to rely heavily on purchasing carbon credits. Reena Skribbe, a climate policy analyst at NewClimate, says these credits are questionable, particularly the forestry credits that Amazon plans to focus its strategy on, which are vulnerable to disruptions, such as wildfires and erosion.
“Emissions reductions and carbon offsets cannot be seen as substitutes, so any net zero target that is not supported by a commitment to deep decarbonization is misleading,” says Skribbe. A 2022 investigation by Reveal found that Amazon significantly underestimated its carbon emissions, only including products sold under Amazon brands, which represent a fraction of the products sold on its platform.
Glasser calls this story misleading because companies that operate their own retail businesses on Amazon’s platform do their own carbon accounting, although competitors such as Walmart include both brands and third-party sellers in their reports on emissions. He did not explain why Amazon doesn’t track emissions from other brands’ products that it stocks and sells directly. Overall, the company’s behavior “does not signal to consumers or shareholders that Amazon takes the urgency of the climate crisis seriously,” Skribbe says.
The Los Angeles-based Amazon employee who stepped down today turned to a leadership slogan from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to sum up the situation. “I think by not having a plan to move forward, we naturally go backwards,” he says. “This is something we talk about a lot about Amazon: day two. Once you stop innovating and imagining a better future, you are already in decline. »
Updated 5/31/2023, 7:10 p.m. EDT: This article has been updated with additional comment from an Amazon spokesperson.
