Verizon, Infosys Among First Signers of Amazon Carbon Pledge

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s open invitation to join its climate effort finally has some takers.

After vowing in September to become carbon neutral by 2040, Amazon invited other companies to join its Climate Pledge, a commitment to track and reduce carbon emissions. Nine months later, the company has signed up Verizon Communications Inc., the Indian software services company Infosys Ltd. and British consumer products maker Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, Amazon said in a statement on Tuesday.

All three have business ties with the world’s largest online retailer. Verizon has a deal with Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit to sell some of its software to mutual customers, Infosys is an AWS partner, and Reckitt Benckiser sells its wares on Amazon’s digital store.

Amazon also said on Tuesday that it was signing onto the Science Based Targets initiative, which sets standards and tracks carbon disclosure. Verizon and Reckitt Benckiser were already among the group’s hundreds of signatories.

Infosys, which set a carbon neutrality goal in 2011, belongs to another pact, called RE100, that commits the company to powering its operations entirely through renewable resources.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge is the biggest environmental commitment to date from a company that had long lagged behind its biggest competitors in sustainability disclosures and pledges.

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