US tech and retail giant matched electricity needs with power supply deals covering more than 500 wind and solar plants, hitting target seven years ahead of schedule
Amazon directly procured enough power from wind, solar, and other renewables generators to match all its electricity needs last year, reaching the milestone seven years ahead of schedule, the US tech and online retail giant announced this morning.
The company has been the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable power for the past four years, striking numerous corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the aim of matching the power use of its entire global operations with clean electricity supplies by 2030.
This morning Amazon revealed it managed to achieve the goal in 2023, meaning the power used by all the firm's data centres, corporate buildings, grocery stores, and fulfilment centres was matched by an equivalent amount of clean power generation from more than 500 separate solar and wind projects where the company has PPA offtake deals in place.
Amazon said it was now procuring enough renewable electricity through PPAs to power the equivalent of almost 22 million average EU homes, with plans to continue expanding its clean power portfolio in order to match the needs of its growing business worldwide.
The company's portfolio of PPAs includes shares of electricity generated by six offshore wind farms boasting 1.7GW of capacity across Europe, including several in Scotland, and it also recently acquired a data centre powered by a nearby nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
"Reaching our renewable energy goal is an incredible achievement, and we're proud of the work we've done to get here, seven years early," said Kara Hurst, Amazon's vice president of worldwide sustainability.
Hurst indicated Amazon would now be looking to expand the variety of low carbon sources it uses to power its business, including not just wind and solar projects, but nuclear, battery storage and other emerging technologies.
"We also know that this is just a moment in time, and our work to decarbonise our operations will not always be the same each year - we'll continue to make progress, while also constantly evolving on our path to 2040," she added.
The milestone does not mean Amazon has matched clean power generation to the demand from its facilities in real time, and as such it is still reliant on grids that use fossil fuels for generation. But long term PPA contracts such as those signed by Amazon provide renewables developers with revenue certainty that allows them to proceed with projects, which in turn results more more clean power capacity being added to the grid. The resulting power is then sourced by Amazon when projects are generating allowing it to cover its total power use over a given period.
Amazon announced the clean power milestone alongside a host of further updates on progress against its green goals, including its overarching target to reach net zero emissions by 2040, as it published its latest sustainability report.
The report reveals that overall the company cut its carbon footprint three per cent last year, while reducing its carbon intensity by 13 per cent.
"A declining carbon intensity indicates that we're successfully decoupling our emissions growth from the growth of our business," Amazon said.
Other updates in Amazon's sustainability report today include news the firm now has a 24,000-strong fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) on roads around the world, which it said last year delivered an estimated 680 million packages to customers.
It said it has also made progress in reducing the environmental impact of its packaging, after replacing 95 per cent of its plastic air pillows in packaging with paper filler across North America. In Europe, the firm also claimed to have replaced single-use plastic delivery packaging with 100 per cent recyclable paper and cardboard packaging.
In addition, Amazon said it is now investing in 26 climate tech start-ups through its Climate Pledge Fund, while more than 500 companies across 45 countries have now signed up to join the Climate Pledge, which requires firms to commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2040.
Amazon said it was also stepping up work with its global suppliers with a view to slashing its Scope 3 value chain emissions, as it today announced the launch of the Sustainability Exchange, an initiative aimed at providing free guidance on green best practices to firms in its supply chain.
The publicly-available website includes a raft of free guidelines, scientific models, and other resources for the firm's suppliers focused on seven key areas: buildings, zero carbon energy, human rights, transport, waste and circularity, water stewardship, and carbon neutralisation.
Amazon said it would prioritise working with suppliers which have set out clear plans and targets to decarbonise their business in line with achieving net zero by 2040 at the latest.
It also revealed it has identified a list of the highest- emitting suppliers directly supporting its operations, and it now expects those suppliers - which collectively contribute more than half of Amazon's Scope 3 emissions - to "provide a plan for how they will decarbonise their operations and demonstrate real progress over time".
"We will prioritise our business towards those who provide their plans and results on their path to net zero," said Hurst. "We are already working with many of these suppliers and will continue our engagement and share learnings through the Amazon Sustainability Exchange. We are committed to further reducing emissions in our supply chain and we expect that our future strategic suppliers aggressively decarbonise their operations over time."
You can now sign up to attend the fifth annual Net Zero Festival, which will be hosted by BusinessGreen on October 22-23 at the Business Design Centre in London.
