Amazon’s Carbon Emissions Increased 15% Amid Rapid Sales Growth
Amazon’s activities generated the equivalent of about 51.17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s carbon emissions climbed 15% last year, a measure of how hard it will be for the company to eliminate planet-warming gases and keep growing rapidly.
Amazon’s activities generated the equivalent of about 51.17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. The company’s sustainability report, released on Tuesday, provides the first year-over-year data for Amazon’s emissions. The figure includes emissions from its operations and purchased electricity, as well as contributions from indirect sources including business travel, delivery contractors and customer trips to the company’s retail stores.
In a move that underlies Amazon’s seriousness about tackling climate change, the company said separately Tuesday that it is setting aside $2 billion to back carbon-reducing technologies being developed by companies in industries from transportation and manufacturing to energy generation and agriculture.
The world’s largest online retailer last year disclosed its carbon footprint for the first time, joining many of its peers in publicly reporting and tracking such figures. The company had for years resisted calls from environmental activists and climate disclose groups to do such standard reporting, which has become a staple of corporate sustainability work.
Despite the growth in absolute emissions, Amazon said the latest figures reflect efforts to make its operations more efficient. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, the company’s sales grew by 22%, a faster clip than Amazon’s emissions. And carbon intensity, a measure of emission per dollar of merchandise sales, fell 5% in 2019 from a year earlier.
“Like many companies in high growth mode, we look at the absolute tons of carbon in our footprint, but also at how we are improving our carbon intensity,” Amazon said in the report. “Our first year-over-year comparison shows progress as we continue to make investments in innovation, technologies, and products that will decarbonize our operations over future years.”
Amazon in September said it aimed to become carbon neutral by 2040.
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