Is Amazon facing Decarbonisation Challenges...???

This has become a topic of the town these days. And it's important to put some light on the reality of operations!!

The challenges on the way to a decarbonized any large corporation are identified with respect to?environmental sustainability, security of energy supply, economic stability and social aspects.

The world’s largest online retailer emitted a total of 71 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent last year as revealed in its latest?sustainability report.

Amazon’s carbon footprint grew 18% in 2021 and up 40% since 2019. The firm’s rapid growth overcame its efforts to cut its emissions and faces four net zero challenges.

Despite this, the giant retailer’s carbon intensity was down by 1.9%, a 3rd year in a row as seen in the table below. It represents the amount of the firm’s total emissions over its gross merchandise sales.

Let's understand some of the key challenges being faced by Amazon on their Decarbonisation journey:

1. Renewable Energy

In 2021, Amazon achieved 85% renewable energy across its operations against their commitment to achieve 100% Renewable Energy by 2025. With this pace, the firm is confident that it’s on a path to reach 100% by 2025.

Research found that moving on-premises computing workloads to AWS can?reduce carbon footprint?by about?80%. This is in comparison to the surveyed enterprise data centers. The figure can go up if AWS will work with 100% renewable energy. But still the transition is taking time and creating struggle for this big giant to pave the path smoothly.

However, AWS’ infrastructure is?3.6x more?energy efficient than the median of surveyed U.S. enterprise data centers. Plus, it’s?5x more?energy efficient than the average European enterprise data center.

2. Sustainable Buildings

Amazon is reducing the carbon footprint of its buildings by using?CarbonCure’s systems?and Brimstone Energy cement in new constructions. These include Amazon’s second headquarters in Virginia (HQ2) – a model for sustainable construction. HQ2 operations are electrified, eliminating the use of fossil fuels for building systems and food service.

The firm is also innovating construction techniques to power fulfillment centers with solar. As of 2021, 115 of its global fulfillment facilities have rooftop solar installations.

Also, in building its AWS data centers, Amazon requires concrete with a 20% reduction in carbon compared with standard concrete for new U.S. data centers.

Likewise, the company is shifting to steel made in electric-arc furnaces that use scrap steel and renewable energy. In 2021, 6 AWS data centers were built with steel made that way.

But since their overall scale it also moving fast, they are being little behind to match up the pace of making it according to the plans.

3. Supply Chain & Decarbonisation

Amazon uses an extensive supply chain to deliver goods and services to customers. Its carbon accounting process takes into consideration all three scopes of emissions.

To achieve?net zero carbon footprint by 2040,?Amazon has to understand, measure, and report emissions data. Transparency is critical in?net zero reporting, especially involving Scope 3 or supply chain emissions. However, it's becoming difficult for them to alingn all their key suppliers to tune their commitment to combat the climate change pledge.

Amazon partners with and supports the We Mean Business Coalition’s Climate Hub. It’s a global initiative that gives small and medium-sized enterprises, like those in Amazon’s supply chain, free tools and resources to measure and report their emissions.

The company will continue to work with partners both in the public and private sectors to advance climate solutions. To the innovators, scientists, builders, and entrepreneurs, Amazon say that:

“Our door is open.?We all need to decarbonize. The work may not make the headlines or bring immediate rewards, but a challenge like this will never be resolved overnight. These are the hard steps that need to be taken.”

What's your views on this? Will Amazon be able to make their targets achieved for Net Zero by 2040? Share your thoughts here in comments: