Amazon recently announced that the company met its "100% renewable energy goal" seven years ahead of schedule. Though this sounds like a positive step forward and true progress should be commended, environmental experts say the claim is misleading, criticizing Amazon's lack of transparency around the company's clean energy data, The New York Times reports.
What's happening?
In July, Amazon announced that all electricity used in its 2023 operations — from powering data centers to corporate buildings to Amazon Fresh storefronts to fulfillment centers — was "matched with 100% renewable energy." While that might be true, the critical word in the announcement is "matched."
Amazon is not powering its facilities with 100% renewable energy. Instead, the company offset its electric usage and planet-warming pollution by investing in more than 500 solar and wind projects. And that investment deserves some praise, as the company is not required to do it. However, these projects didn't directly power Amazon operations. Most of the energy created was sent to electricity grids serving other businesses and residential homes, per the Times.
Amazon's stance is this is akin to community solar, moving the needle in the right direction even when a particular location can't have its own renewable energy right away, and there is merit in Amazon's investments to match. It's arguably better than carbon offsets and especially those that aren't transparent. But it also makes it questionable to celebrate achieving the "100% renewable energy goal" seven years ahead of schedule, and it isn't exactly how Amazon is presenting it.
"It sounds simple — just power your business with 100% renewable energy," an Amazon representative says in a video announcement. "But the detail that goes in, and the industry expertise that's required to really understand how much energy you're consuming [and] what's the best way to drive new wind and solar to the grids around the world — it's complicated."
Critics say Amazon is misleading consumers, according to Forbes, creating the false impression that the company is actually using "renewable energy" to power its facilities — and masking its true environmental impact. And that includes criticism from the company's own employees.
"As Amazon employees, we are frustrated that Amazon leadership is misleading the public by distorting the truth about its renewable energy claims," the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said in a statement cited by The New York Times. "Amazon wants us to think of its data centers as surrounded by wind and solar farms, but the reality is the company is heavily investing in data center expansions fueled by West Virginian coal, Saudi Arabian oil, and Canadian fracked gas."
Why is it important for Amazon to use renewable energy?
While investing in solar and wind projects is a positive, it's vital that companies like Amazon cut their energy consumption and use renewable energy in their own business practices — not just purchase offsets.
In the U.S., about 62% of total electricity generation in 2022 was produced from fossil fuels, explained here by the Energy Information Administration — leading to air pollution and public health impacts. Currently, Amazon still uses these polluting energy sources to power its daily operations.
The company has a "B" grade from CDP, a nonprofit that grades how major businesses manage their environmental impact. As Forbes outlines, despite investing in solar and wind, Amazon's recent sustainability report showed its planet-warming pollution rose 7% in 2023 for "direct operations." The report also showed that the company's carbon impact actually rose by 34% since the launch of its Climate Pledge in 2019 — though the footprint was reduced by 3% from 2022 to 2023, as Forbes highlighted.
Clean energy technology such as solar panels and wind turbines are effective and inexpensive ways to produce energy, reducing the amount of heat-trapping pollution entering the atmosphere. For a company as large as Amazon, swapping to renewable energy sources would be invaluable to the climate and public health.
What's being done about Amazon's climate impact?
Amazon is working toward a wide range of climate goals outlined in the company's online sustainability hub. The company is particularly focused on reaching net zero by 2040, meaning it hopes to remove the same amount of planet-warming pollution from the air as it puts in.
Environmental critics, however, are doubtful about Amazon's climate commitment given the company's perceived distortion of data. Amazon employees are also skeptical about the company's environmental progress. In May, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice organized a walkout, criticizing Amazon for "getting worse, not better, on climate."
Notably, Amazon has walked back on some of its previous climate commitments, like nixing its pledge to make half of all shipments net zero by 2030. Regardless, Amazon seems pleased with its efforts so far, if its renewable energy announcement is any indication.
"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," Amazon chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst said in a press release. "We also know that this is just a moment in time, and our work to decarbonize 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."
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