Amazon has been reporting their carbon emissions for quite some time now, as a way to publicly hold themselves accountable. For the first time ever, in their recent report, we saw a decrease from the previous report. Amazon has been working on purchasing more sources for renewable energy and we are finally seeing the changes from those purchases reflected in their numbers.

Amazon’s emissions in 2022 were down 0.4% from what they were in 2021. The emissions in 2022 were 71.27 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. While it may sound like a small percentage of decrease, it can make a world of a difference. It is definitely just a first step still, but it is a step in the right direction!

To achieve the decrease, they used more solar and wind power in their operations.

Since Amazon began their journey of lowering their carbon emissions, they have been the largest corporation to buy renewable energy sources. They also began funding projects to build and establish more solar and wind farms all over the world.

Amazon previously pledged to completely eradicate, or eradicate as much as they can, their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. Just after they launched this pledge when the world fell into a global pandemic with the Covid-19 virus, the sales skyrocketed for Amazon, which lead to a drastic increase in their emissions due to more shipping.

According to Amazon’s released emissions report, they did also cut their carbon intensity by 24%.

This is a measure of how much carbon dioxide is emitted for every dollar of merchandise they sell. It is important to note also that while Amazon did see an increase in their revenue, the rate of increase was the lowest it has ever been, coming in just at 9.4%.

While the fact that they cut their emissions is good, Amazon did slyly also leave a stricter carbon emission reduction plan that they were previously a part of. They were signed on to the Shipment Zero plan, in which they promised to make at least half of all their shipments carbon-free by 2030. They retracted their promise to this plan, stating it was not a realistic goal.

Amazon also did push back quite a bit when it came time to first begin their reporting. At the time when many companies were beginning to report their emission levels, Amazon refused. They ultimately began to report after endless pressure from shareholders.