Amazon’s Carbon Footprint Left Bigger Mark in 2020

Amazon is reporting that its carbon footprint grew for the third consecutive year. The retail giant attributed the 19% increase in 2020 to a surge in online orders and deliveries during the stay-at-home period of the pandemic.

In its latest sustainability report, Amazon tried to offset the news of its larger carbon footprint with the assertion that consumers ordering online instead of traveling to physical stores generated lower carbon emissions on their part. The company also pointed to a statistic showing that the amount of carbon emitted for every dollar spent on its site declined 16% in the same time span, and cited a decrease in absolute emissions from purchased electricity. In the 2020 recap, Amazon highlighted several decarbonization measures that have been put into place, including investments in renewable energy. In June, the company announced 14 new renewable energy projects in the U.S., Canada, Finland and Spain and noted that it is now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the United States and the world.

Still, the overall rise in carbon use correlates with Amazon’s continued growth, as the organization expands its warehouse square footage and adds fuel-consuming planes and trucks. In the first quarter of 2021, the company's net income more than tripled and sales in North American jumped by 39.5%.

Given this growth and the pace of sustainability initiatives, Amazon acknowledges in its sustainability report that “it will take several years for the carbon reduction benefits of our investments to be fully reflected in our footprint.”  

Ultimately, the aim of its sustainability efforts is to decouple carbon emissions from business growth, the report stated.

Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.