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一路狂奔的亚马逊,在这个问题上遭多方质疑

Marcus Baram
2021-07-03

外界对亚马逊的可持续性承诺及其在这方面的进展产生了质疑。

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图片来源:HELEN H. RICHARDSON—MEDIANEWS GROUP/THE DENVER POST/GETTY IMAGES

亚马逊计划到2022年投放1万辆电动汽车。图片来源:Courtesy of Amazon

在位于科罗拉多州的亚马逊运营中心,一名仓库工作人员为托盘上的纸箱缠上塑料膜。图片来源:Helen H. Richardson—MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images

亚马逊公司(Amazon)的规模日益壮大,它所举办的“会员日”(Prime Day)购物活动,在短短两天内销售额就超过了100亿美元,并且迫使竞争对手纷纷效仿。

但该公司在新冠疫情期间的飞速增长,却让外界对它的可持续发展承诺及其在这方面的进展产生了质疑。

2019年年初,亚马逊的创始人及首席执行官杰夫•贝佐斯在位于华盛顿特区的国家新闻俱乐部(National Press Club)宣布了公司的“气候承诺”,他表示亚马逊致力于“为我们的客户和地球打造可持续的业务。”

实现他所说的这些目标意味着减少各个业务领域的碳足迹,在2040年之前实现碳中和,这将比《巴黎协定》(Paris Agreement)里提出的时间提前十年。贝佐斯的承诺中还包括减少运营和自营产品生产过程以及包装、运输等整个供应链的温室气体排放。

《财富》杂志通过评估CSRHub编制的环境、社会与治理(ESG)数据发现,虽然亚马逊在过去几年确实在不断进步,但它依旧有完善的空间,目前在跟踪能源消耗和二氧化碳排放的气候变化子类别的排名中,亚马逊依旧落后于沃尔玛(Walmart)和阿里巴巴等竞争对手。CSRHub为全球数千家上市公司和私营公司提供企业社会责任评级。

CSRHub最近向《财富》杂志分享的数据显示,在环境类别中,亚马逊的百分位排名为第63位,与2016年4月的百分位第7位相比进步明显。

最近,CSRHub对亚马逊的总体评分为52分(满分100分)。

CSRHub的联合创始人及首席执行官辛西娅•菲格表示,虽然这依旧落后于沃尔玛等竞争对手,但已经是显著的改进。

她说:“几年前,对于一家大公司而言,他们的得分很低。随着对这些公司的审查日益严格,他们加大了投入。他们取得了巨大进步,但这是一个漫长的过程。”她表示,亚马逊在可持续发展方面投入了大量资源。

虽然亚马逊逐步提高了在可持续发展方面的雄心,并频繁宣布新计划,但行业分析师认为,亚马逊依旧没有打中目标,因为它没有向供应商和第三方卖家施加足够的压力,要求他们的产品中使用可再生材料,而且它对自己取得的进展没有做到公开透明。

晨星(Morningstar)旗下的环境、社会和治理研究公司Sustainalytics在最新的报告中,将亚马逊的环境、社会和治理总体评级从中风险调整为高风险。Sustainalytics表示,这个评级代表了公司“因为环境、社会和治理因素受到严重财务影响的整体风险。”

康奈尔大学(Cornell University)全球可持续企业中心(Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise)的塞缪尔•C•约翰逊教授克里斯托弗•马奎斯称:“鉴于亚马逊的规模和地位,它要履行自己的诺言还需要做得更多。”他认为,亚马逊可以激励消费者把多笔购物集中到一个订单,从而减少包装浪费。

为了实现雄心勃勃的碳中和目标,亚马逊计划到2025年,公司运营将全部采用可再生能源电力;到2030年将投放10万辆电动快递车辆;所有货物运输将实现净零碳排放。

亚马逊已经说服来自16个国家的100多家公司签署气候承诺。这些公司来自各行各业,包括联合利华(Unilever)、微软(Microsoft)和威瑞森(Verizon)等品牌,它们承诺在2040年之前应对气候变化,并实现净零排放。

最近,亚马逊与Facebook和Alphabet等科技巨头一同向美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)施压,呼吁上市公司报告各自的温室气体排放量。

亚马逊的声明显示,该公司还为研发减排技术设立了基金,投入20亿美元,并在再生林项目和“气候[变化]减缓解决方案”等方面投入1亿美元。

缺乏透明

但要跟踪亚马逊在可持续发展方面取得的进展依旧存在挑战,因为它从未公布过关键指标的数据,例如回收包装使用情况、电动快递车辆采购情况等。

在2020年,碳信息披露项目(Carbon Disclosure Project)将亚马逊评为F级。该组织经常批评亚马逊在气候工作方面缺乏透明度。

亚马逊在一份声明中称:“亚马逊与世界各地的制造商合作,通过我们的简约包装(Frustration-Free Packaging)认证项目改进它们的产品包装。”

新冠疫情放大了亚马逊的这些不足,因为疫情期间对电子商务的需求突然大幅增加,这令亚马逊疲于应对,其货运飞机和随处可见的卡车正在世界各地派送快递,而其云计算部门对被迫远程办公的公司而言变得更加重要。

因此,尽管亚马逊正在努力减少碳排放并增加利用可再生能源,但其环境足迹仍然在持续扩大。

亚马逊表示,公司运营100%使用可再生能源电力的目标将提前五年实现,并且亚马逊是全球最大的企业可再生能源采购方,共有206个可再生能源项目,包括71个市政规模的风电和太阳能发电项目,以及在世界各地的生产设施和门店安装的135个屋顶太阳能项目。

但亚马逊在2020年披露,其业务运营排放量较前一年增加了15%,超过5,100万公吨二氧化碳。2月,亚马逊开始在洛杉矶测试用于客户配送的新型电动汽车,并在其他多个城市增加使用电动汽车,其目标是到2022年投放1万辆这款电动汽车。亚马逊最近还在欧洲快递车队中部署了1,800辆电动货车。

包括内部员工在内的批评者一直在向亚马逊施压,呼吁该公司大力调整公司业务,他们表示进出亚马逊运营中心的货运卡车排放,与哮喘等呼吸道疾病有关。

亚马逊员工气候正义组织(Amazon Employees for Climate Justice)的发言人指出:“尽管美国政府将环境正义作为其整体解决气候危机的关键组成部分,但亚马逊并没有承认其产生的污染集中在有色人种社区。”

而且分析师指出,亚马逊的行动缺乏力度。可持续基础设施中心(Center for Sustainable Infrastructure)的执行主任里斯•罗斯表示:“亚马逊要实现2025年的目标,必须以比全球业务增长更快的速度,加快可再生能源项目投资和开发。”

最近,针对其出售的数以百万计商品的可持续性,亚马逊扩大了“气候承诺友好”(Climate Pledge Friendly)计划,只要商品获得至少一家致力于环境问题的全球组织的认证,就能够添加气候承诺友好标记。现在,亚马逊出售的带有这个标记的商品超过75,000种。亚马逊还表示,其10月发布的最新款Echo和Fire TV设备使用了100%循环利用的铝和织物以及30%至50%的回收利用塑料,并且带有低能耗模式,可以减少设备闲置时的能耗。亚马逊还扩大了电子设备维修、回收和翻新项目。

供应链零排放

亚马逊表示,公司可持续发展工作的重点是其供应链,包括从供应商和产品仓储到库存管理与配送等产品生命周期的关键环节。供应链排放约占亚马逊总碳足迹的80%。

亚马逊指出,将与供应商合作寻找解决方案,通过鼓励使用以可持续方式生产的棉织品、皮革、纤维素纤维和回收材料等,减少其自营服装的环境影响。

亚马逊以提高透明度的名义,公布了一份供应链地图,图中显示了生产自营服装、消费电子产品、食品饮料和家居用品的供应商。2019年,亚马逊在尽职调查中对供应商进行了4,082次评估,以确保它们符合亚马逊的标准。例如,根据ISS Corporate Solutions开展的一项评估,亚马逊旗下的全食超市(Whole Foods)被称赞“采取了充分措施,以确保农业经营实践的可持续性,比如可持续的棕榈油和水产养殖等”。

罗斯说:“如果我们的目标是减少对地球的影响,就必须把重点放在产品生产和供应链上游,因为这个环节的碳足迹远远超过处置环节。如果亚马逊能够成为气候承诺签约方中的领导者,这将是至关重要的进步。”

Sustainalytics公司的分析师洛克珊娜•多布雷称,虽然亚马逊近几年有所改进,但依旧落后于竞争对手。她指出,在生态设计和材料使用方面,亚马逊“表现不佳,无法保证其出售的商品的可持续性。”

多布雷还提到了亚马逊在德国引起的争议。亚马逊被曝光对包括电子产品在内的许多未出售商品,采取了销毁处理。6月,在亚马逊的一家英国仓库,从新智能电视到吹风机,有数百万件商品被销毁,使亚马逊登上了媒体头条。

多布雷称:“虽然[发生在德国的事件]是个案,但却让许多人对亚马逊能否解决环境和社会标准问题产生了质疑。因为许多同行正在计划执行循环商业模式。”

分析师指出,亚马逊的可持续发展政策并没有将第三方卖家作为重点,但在亚马逊平台上,绝大部分商品都来自第三方卖家。

马奎斯认为,亚马逊可以采取措施向第三方卖家施压,例如要求“核算该平台任何卖家的碳足迹;[亚马逊的]算法能够突出和推广碳足迹较小的卖家。[亚马逊]可以更积极地尝试影响消费者做出更明智的选择,[并且]激励消费者将多个订单合并配送,比如消费者以这种方式购物能够获得5%的优惠。”

在包装方面,亚马逊在2020年9月提出,到2023年之前其设备将100%使用可回收材料。虽然亚马逊并未公布实现这个目标的最新进展,但它表示其2020年的设备包装减少了超过2,700万个塑料袋。但非盈利海洋倡议组织Oceana的报告称,亚马逊在2019年产生的塑料包装垃圾依旧达到4.65亿磅,其中超过2,200万磅被直接排入了淡水和海洋生态系统。全世界每年生产的约8,600万吨塑料包装,超过86%没有被回收再利用。

马奎斯表示:“[亚马逊]可以说:‘我们希望在某个日期之前达到完全无塑料包装。’这将刺激全世界的无数卖家发挥创意,展开创新。”他将亚马逊与Grove Collaborative等在线交易平台进行了对比。Grove Collaborative通过出售植物性洗碗机凝珠减少使用塑料,并对每一次货运使用碳抵消。

多布雷认为,亚马逊制定雄心勃勃的可持续发展目标,当然值得称赞。

她说:“他们认识到了问题,并把它们摆在了台面上。但他们如何应对这些问题仍然是个未知数。”(财富中文网)

翻译:刘进龙

审校:汪皓

亚马逊公司(Amazon)的规模日益壮大,它所举办的“会员日”(Prime Day)购物活动,在短短两天内销售额就超过了100亿美元,并且迫使竞争对手纷纷效仿。

但该公司在新冠疫情期间的飞速增长,却让外界对它的可持续发展承诺及其在这方面的进展产生了质疑。

2019年年初,亚马逊的创始人及首席执行官杰夫•贝佐斯在位于华盛顿特区的国家新闻俱乐部(National Press Club)宣布了公司的“气候承诺”,他表示亚马逊致力于“为我们的客户和地球打造可持续的业务。”

实现他所说的这些目标意味着减少各个业务领域的碳足迹,在2040年之前实现碳中和,这将比《巴黎协定》(Paris Agreement)里提出的时间提前十年。贝佐斯的承诺中还包括减少运营和自营产品生产过程以及包装、运输等整个供应链的温室气体排放。

《财富》杂志通过评估CSRHub编制的环境、社会与治理(ESG)数据发现,虽然亚马逊在过去几年确实在不断进步,但它依旧有完善的空间,目前在跟踪能源消耗和二氧化碳排放的气候变化子类别的排名中,亚马逊依旧落后于沃尔玛(Walmart)和阿里巴巴等竞争对手。CSRHub为全球数千家上市公司和私营公司提供企业社会责任评级。

CSRHub最近向《财富》杂志分享的数据显示,在环境类别中,亚马逊的百分位排名为第63位,与2016年4月的百分位第7位相比进步明显。

最近,CSRHub对亚马逊的总体评分为52分(满分100分)。

CSRHub的联合创始人及首席执行官辛西娅•菲格表示,虽然这依旧落后于沃尔玛等竞争对手,但已经是显著的改进。

她说:“几年前,对于一家大公司而言,他们的得分很低。随着对这些公司的审查日益严格,他们加大了投入。他们取得了巨大进步,但这是一个漫长的过程。”她表示,亚马逊在可持续发展方面投入了大量资源。

虽然亚马逊逐步提高了在可持续发展方面的雄心,并频繁宣布新计划,但行业分析师认为,亚马逊依旧没有打中目标,因为它没有向供应商和第三方卖家施加足够的压力,要求他们的产品中使用可再生材料,而且它对自己取得的进展没有做到公开透明。

晨星(Morningstar)旗下的环境、社会和治理研究公司Sustainalytics在最新的报告中,将亚马逊的环境、社会和治理总体评级从中风险调整为高风险。Sustainalytics表示,这个评级代表了公司“因为环境、社会和治理因素受到严重财务影响的整体风险。”

康奈尔大学(Cornell University)全球可持续企业中心(Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise)的塞缪尔•C•约翰逊教授克里斯托弗•马奎斯称:“鉴于亚马逊的规模和地位,它要履行自己的诺言还需要做得更多。”他认为,亚马逊可以激励消费者把多笔购物集中到一个订单,从而减少包装浪费。

为了实现雄心勃勃的碳中和目标,亚马逊计划到2025年,公司运营将全部采用可再生能源电力;到2030年将投放10万辆电动快递车辆;所有货物运输将实现净零碳排放。

亚马逊已经说服来自16个国家的100多家公司签署气候承诺。这些公司来自各行各业,包括联合利华(Unilever)、微软(Microsoft)和威瑞森(Verizon)等品牌,它们承诺在2040年之前应对气候变化,并实现净零排放。

最近,亚马逊与Facebook和Alphabet等科技巨头一同向美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)施压,呼吁上市公司报告各自的温室气体排放量。

亚马逊的声明显示,该公司还为研发减排技术设立了基金,投入20亿美元,并在再生林项目和“气候[变化]减缓解决方案”等方面投入1亿美元。

缺乏透明

但要跟踪亚马逊在可持续发展方面取得的进展依旧存在挑战,因为它从未公布过关键指标的数据,例如回收包装使用情况、电动快递车辆采购情况等。

在2020年,碳信息披露项目(Carbon Disclosure Project)将亚马逊评为F级。该组织经常批评亚马逊在气候工作方面缺乏透明度。

亚马逊在一份声明中称:“亚马逊与世界各地的制造商合作,通过我们的简约包装(Frustration-Free Packaging)认证项目改进它们的产品包装。”

新冠疫情放大了亚马逊的这些不足,因为疫情期间对电子商务的需求突然大幅增加,这令亚马逊疲于应对,其货运飞机和随处可见的卡车正在世界各地派送快递,而其云计算部门对被迫远程办公的公司而言变得更加重要。

因此,尽管亚马逊正在努力减少碳排放并增加利用可再生能源,但其环境足迹仍然在持续扩大。

亚马逊表示,公司运营100%使用可再生能源电力的目标将提前五年实现,并且亚马逊是全球最大的企业可再生能源采购方,共有206个可再生能源项目,包括71个市政规模的风电和太阳能发电项目,以及在世界各地的生产设施和门店安装的135个屋顶太阳能项目。

但亚马逊在2020年披露,其业务运营排放量较前一年增加了15%,超过5,100万公吨二氧化碳。2月,亚马逊开始在洛杉矶测试用于客户配送的新型电动汽车,并在其他多个城市增加使用电动汽车,其目标是到2022年投放1万辆这款电动汽车。亚马逊最近还在欧洲快递车队中部署了1,800辆电动货车。

包括内部员工在内的批评者一直在向亚马逊施压,呼吁该公司大力调整公司业务,他们表示进出亚马逊运营中心的货运卡车排放,与哮喘等呼吸道疾病有关。

亚马逊员工气候正义组织(Amazon Employees for Climate Justice)的发言人指出:“尽管美国政府将环境正义作为其整体解决气候危机的关键组成部分,但亚马逊并没有承认其产生的污染集中在有色人种社区。”

而且分析师指出,亚马逊的行动缺乏力度。可持续基础设施中心(Center for Sustainable Infrastructure)的执行主任里斯•罗斯表示:“亚马逊要实现2025年的目标,必须以比全球业务增长更快的速度,加快可再生能源项目投资和开发。”

最近,针对其出售的数以百万计商品的可持续性,亚马逊扩大了“气候承诺友好”(Climate Pledge Friendly)计划,只要商品获得至少一家致力于环境问题的全球组织的认证,就能够添加气候承诺友好标记。现在,亚马逊出售的带有这个标记的商品超过75,000种。亚马逊还表示,其10月发布的最新款Echo和Fire TV设备使用了100%循环利用的铝和织物以及30%至50%的回收利用塑料,并且带有低能耗模式,可以减少设备闲置时的能耗。亚马逊还扩大了电子设备维修、回收和翻新项目。

供应链零排放

亚马逊表示,公司可持续发展工作的重点是其供应链,包括从供应商和产品仓储到库存管理与配送等产品生命周期的关键环节。供应链排放约占亚马逊总碳足迹的80%。

亚马逊指出,将与供应商合作寻找解决方案,通过鼓励使用以可持续方式生产的棉织品、皮革、纤维素纤维和回收材料等,减少其自营服装的环境影响。

亚马逊以提高透明度的名义,公布了一份供应链地图,图中显示了生产自营服装、消费电子产品、食品饮料和家居用品的供应商。2019年,亚马逊在尽职调查中对供应商进行了4,082次评估,以确保它们符合亚马逊的标准。例如,根据ISS Corporate Solutions开展的一项评估,亚马逊旗下的全食超市(Whole Foods)被称赞“采取了充分措施,以确保农业经营实践的可持续性,比如可持续的棕榈油和水产养殖等”。

罗斯说:“如果我们的目标是减少对地球的影响,就必须把重点放在产品生产和供应链上游,因为这个环节的碳足迹远远超过处置环节。如果亚马逊能够成为气候承诺签约方中的领导者,这将是至关重要的进步。”

Sustainalytics公司的分析师洛克珊娜•多布雷称,虽然亚马逊近几年有所改进,但依旧落后于竞争对手。她指出,在生态设计和材料使用方面,亚马逊“表现不佳,无法保证其出售的商品的可持续性。”

多布雷还提到了亚马逊在德国引起的争议。亚马逊被曝光对包括电子产品在内的许多未出售商品,采取了销毁处理。6月,在亚马逊的一家英国仓库,从新智能电视到吹风机,有数百万件商品被销毁,使亚马逊登上了媒体头条。

多布雷称:“虽然[发生在德国的事件]是个案,但却让许多人对亚马逊能否解决环境和社会标准问题产生了质疑。因为许多同行正在计划执行循环商业模式。”

分析师指出,亚马逊的可持续发展政策并没有将第三方卖家作为重点,但在亚马逊平台上,绝大部分商品都来自第三方卖家。

马奎斯认为,亚马逊可以采取措施向第三方卖家施压,例如要求“核算该平台任何卖家的碳足迹;[亚马逊的]算法能够突出和推广碳足迹较小的卖家。[亚马逊]可以更积极地尝试影响消费者做出更明智的选择,[并且]激励消费者将多个订单合并配送,比如消费者以这种方式购物能够获得5%的优惠。”

在包装方面,亚马逊在2020年9月提出,到2023年之前其设备将100%使用可回收材料。虽然亚马逊并未公布实现这个目标的最新进展,但它表示其2020年的设备包装减少了超过2,700万个塑料袋。但非盈利海洋倡议组织Oceana的报告称,亚马逊在2019年产生的塑料包装垃圾依旧达到4.65亿磅,其中超过2,200万磅被直接排入了淡水和海洋生态系统。全世界每年生产的约8,600万吨塑料包装,超过86%没有被回收再利用。

马奎斯表示:“[亚马逊]可以说:‘我们希望在某个日期之前达到完全无塑料包装。’这将刺激全世界的无数卖家发挥创意,展开创新。”他将亚马逊与Grove Collaborative等在线交易平台进行了对比。Grove Collaborative通过出售植物性洗碗机凝珠减少使用塑料,并对每一次货运使用碳抵消。

多布雷认为,亚马逊制定雄心勃勃的可持续发展目标,当然值得称赞。

她说:“他们认识到了问题,并把它们摆在了台面上。但他们如何应对这些问题仍然是个未知数。”(财富中文网)

翻译:刘进龙

审校:汪皓

Amazon is bigger than ever, commanding a Prime Day shopping event that has forced the competition to follow suit and was expected to bring in over $10 billion in just two days.

But the company’s astronomical growth throughout the pandemic has raised questions about its sustainability commitments and the progress it’s making.

In early 2019, its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, unveiled the Climate Pledge at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., announcing the company’s commitment to “building a sustainable business for our customers and the planet.”

Achieving these stated goals would mean shrinking its carbon footprint across all of its businesses to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s timeline. The pledge also included reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and in the making of its own products, including packaging and shipping, as well as across its supply chain.

Fortune’s review of ESG data compiled by CSRHub—which provides corporate social responsibility ratings for thousands of public and private companies worldwide—shows that while Amazon has in fact been making progress over the past several years, it still has room for improvement and currently ranks behind competitors such as Walmart and Alibaba in the climate change subcategory, which tracks energy use and CO2 emissions.

In the environmental category, Amazon has reached the 63rd percentile, a significant improvement from its position in the seventh percentile back in April 2016, according to the most recent CSRHub data shared with Fortune.

Most recently CSRHub gave Amazon an overall score of 52 out of 100.

That’s a significant improvement, said CSRHub cofounder and CEO Cynthia Figge, though it lags Walmart and other competitors.

“A few years ago, they were as low as you get for a major corporation. But as they’ve gotten a lot more scrutiny, they’ve upped their game,” she said, noting that Amazon has put significant resources into its sustainability initiatives. “They’ve come a long way, and it is a journey.”

As the company’s sustainability approach has grown more ambitious, with frequent announcements about new initiatives, industry analysts say Amazon still misses the mark because it isn’t putting enough pressure on its suppliers and third-party sellers to use renewable materials in their products, and it isn’t transparent enough about the progress it is making.

The company’s overall ESG rating was downgraded from medium risk to high risk by Sustainalytics, an ESG research firm owned by Morningstar, in its most recent report. The rating indicates the company’s “overall risk of experiencing material financial impact due to ESG factors,” Sustainalytics noted.

“Given their size and prominence, they could do more if they really wanted to walk the talk,” said Christopher Marquis, the Samuel C. Johnson Professor in Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University, adding that the company could incentivize consumers to group their purchases into a single order to reduce packaging waste.

To achieve its ambitious goal of carbon neutrality, the tech giant aims to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025; place 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030; and make all of its shipments net-zero carbon.

It has persuaded more than 100 companies across multiple industries in 16 countries, including brands like Unilever, Microsoft, and Verizon, to sign the Climate Pledge, each one committing to address climate change and reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

More recently, it joined other tech giants such as Facebook and Alphabet in pressuring the Securities and Exchange Commission to make companies report their greenhouse gas emissions.

Amazon has also set up funds to invest $2 billion in the development of technology that reduces emissions and $100 million in reforestation projects and “climate [change] mitigation solutions,” according to a company statement.

Lack of transparency

Still, it’s challenging to track the progress Amazon is making on sustainability, because the company has yet to release numbers on key metrics, from its use of recycled packaging to its purchase of electric delivery vehicles.

The company received an F grade from the Carbon Disclosure Project watchdog group in 2020, which has routinely criticized its lack of transparency on climate efforts.

"Amazon works with manufacturers worldwide to help improve their packaging through our Frustration-Free Packaging certification program," the company said in a statement.

The pandemic has amplified these shortcomings, as Amazon scrambled to meet the unexpected surge in demand for e-commerce, with cargo jets and its ubiquitous trucks making still more deliveries around the world and its cloud computing division all the more crucial to businesses forced to work remotely.

As a result, its environmental footprint keeps growing despite the measures it’s taking to reduce emissions and tap renewable energy sources.

Amazon indicated it’s five years early on its path to achieve the goal of powering its operations with 100% renewable energy, adding that it’s the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally, with a total of 206 renewable energy projects, including 71 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 135 solar rooftops on facilities and stores worldwide.

But it disclosed in 2020 that emissions from its business operations increased 15% from the prior year, to more than 51 million metric tons of CO2. In February, however, it began testing its new electric vehicles via customer deliveries in Los Angeles and has since expanded its use of EVs in a number of other cities, with the aim of putting 10,000 such vehicles on the road by 2022. Amazon also recently deployed 1,800 electric vans as part of its European delivery fleet.

Critics, including its own employees, have pressured the company to do more to revamp its business operations, noting that vehicle emissions from freight trucks coming and going from Amazon fulfillment centers are associated with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

“Even as the United States government includes environmental justice as a critical part of solving the climate crisis at large, Amazon has yet to acknowledge that its pollution is concentrated in communities of color,” noted a spokesperson for Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

And analysts say the pace may not be aggressive enough. “To reach that 2025 goal, they’ll have to accelerate renewable-energy project investment and developments far faster than global operations growth,” said Rhys Roth, executive director at the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure.

As for the sustainability of the millions of products it sells, Amazon recently expanded a program that marks items as Climate Pledge Friendly, if they are certified by at least one of several worldwide organizations focused on environmental issues; the company now offers more than 75,000 such products. Amazon also noted that the latest Echo and Fire TV devices released in October contain 100% recycled aluminum and fabric and 30% to 50% recycled plastic and feature a low-power mode to reduce energy consumption when the devices aren’t in use. The company has in addition expanded its program for repairing, recycling, and refurbishing its electronic devices.

Zeroing in on the supply chain

Amazon said it’s also focusing its sustainability efforts on its supply chain—the key components of a product’s life cycle from suppliers and product warehousing to inventory management and delivery. Supply chain emissions are estimated to make up 80% of total footprint.

The company said it’s reducing the environmental impact of its own Amazon-branded apparel by working with suppliers to find solutions that promote the use of sustainably produced cotton, leather, and cellulosic fibers as well as recycled materials.

And in the name of transparency, Amazon released a supply chain map showing the suppliers that produce its apparel, consumer electronics, food and beverage, and home goods items. In 2019 it conducted 4,082 assessments of suppliers as part of its due diligence, ensuring that they are adhering to Amazon’s standards. Amazon-owned Whole Foods, for example, was recently credited for taking “adequate measures to ensure sustainable agricultural business practices, e.g., regarding sustainable palm oil and aquaculture,” according to an assessment conducted by ISS Corporate Solutions.

“If our goal is to reduce the impact on the planet, we have to focus on product manufacturing and the supply chain upstream, which is a greater part of the carbon footprint than disposal,” said Roth. “And if Amazon can be a leader among the Climate Pledge signers, that is a really important step forward.”

Though Amazon has improved in recent years, it still ranks behind competitors, noted Roxana Dobre, an analyst for Sustainalytics, adding that Amazon does “not perform very well when it comes to ensuring that they have sustainable products they sell,” both in terms of eco design and use of materials.

Dobre also noted a recent controversy in Germany, where Amazon was caught destroying unsold electronics, among other items. And in June, the company made headlines when millions of items in a British warehouse, from new smart TVs to hair dryers, were marked for destruction.

“[The incident in Germany] was an isolated event, but it raises a lot of questions about whether Amazon is able to deal with E&S [environmental and social standards]. Because a lot of their peers are looking into implementing the circular business model,” she said.

Analysts note that Amazon’s sustainability policy has yet to focus on third-party sellers, the source of a majority of products on its platform.

The company could take steps to pressure those sellers by requiring “an accounting of the carbon footprint of anyone that sells on the platform; [Amazon’s] algorithms could enhance and promote those that have a smaller footprint,” said Marquis. “[The company] could be more proactive in trying to shape consumers to make smarter choices, [and give] incentives to consumers to group certain orders into one delivery and one package, and you save 5% on your purchase, for example.”

In terms of packaging, Amazon set a goal in September 2020 of using 100% recyclable materials for its devices by 2023. Though it has not yet released an update on the progress it’s making to achieve that goal, Amazon said it had eliminated over 27 million plastic bags from its devices packaging in 2020. Still, the company was responsible for 465 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2019, according to a report from nonprofit ocean advocacy group Oceana, which also estimated that more than 22 million pounds of this waste was funneled directly into freshwater and marine ecosystems. Overall, more than 86% of the nearly 86 million tons of plastic packaging produced in the world each year is not recycled.

“[Amazon] could say, ‘We want to be totally plastic-free by a certain date.’ Think about the creativity and innovation that would spur in the world among their millions of sellers,” noted Marquis, comparing the company with an online marketplace such as Grove Collaborative, which is reducing its use of plastic by selling plant-based dishwasher pods and uses carbon offsets for every shipment it makes.

It’s laudable that Amazon has set such ambitious sustainability goals, according to Dobre.

“They’re acknowledging the issue and that they have a place at the table,” she noted. “But what they’re going to do with that is still unknown.”

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