Amazon says that its carbon footprint grew 19% final yr because it rushed to ship a surge of on-line orders throughout the pandemic.
The Related PressFILE – On this Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, file photograph, a Boeing 767 with an Amazon.com “Prime Air” liver…Learn ExtraNEW YORK — Amazon mentioned Wednesday that its carbon footprint grew 19% final yr because it rushed to ship a surge of on-line orders throughout the pandemic.
The web purchasing behemoth mentioned actions tied to its companies emitted 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide final yr — the equal of burning via 140 million barrels of oil. Amazon‘s carbon footprint has risen yearly since 2018, when it first disclosed its carbon footprint, one thing workers had pushed the corporate to do.
The Seattle-based firm mentioned that, whereas its carbon footprint grew, the quantity of carbon it emitted for each greenback spent on the positioning fell 16% in 2020.
However the improve in its complete carbon footprint exhibits how onerous it’s for a fast-growing firm like Amazon to chop down on air pollution.
The corporate has been shopping for up photo voltaic vitality, making its devices out of recycled plastic and even renamed a Seattle hockey area after its climate-change initiative.
Nevertheless, Amazon is determined by fuel-burning planes and vehicles to ship billions of things around the globe. Actually, it introduced earlier this yr that it might purchase 11 jets to get packages to consumers quicker. Amazon’s emissions from fossil fuels soared 69% final yr.
There was some enchancment. As a result of extra folks stayed residence and ordered on-line throughout the pandemic, the emissions from consumers’ drives to Amazon’s grocer Entire Meals and its different bodily shops fell 32%, the corporate mentioned.