Contents
Jeff Bezos is serious about fighting climate change. In 2020, his company launched a $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in technologies that reduce emissions. But is everything green at Amazon?
Amazon is an online retailer whose spheres of influence have spread to other industries. Now the company is the largest provider of cloud services and a smart home system, a fashion designer, an advertising and production platform in television and cinema, a book publisher and the owner of a crowdsourcing platform. Amazon has a market capitalization of over $2021 trillion as of January 1,5, and founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man on earth.
Amazon Green Plans
Funds from Amazon’s announced $2 billion fund will be used to find new technologies with the most sustainable solutions for storing, transporting and generating energy. Which can also be implemented in the activities of the company itself.
UC Davis management professor Paul Griffin says the fund’s performance will depend on how the money is invested and how transparent the impact and costs are.
“We could hear flashy announcements about the funds awarded, but don’t forget that the event was created by a non-governmental organization, so we can’t see much information about real cases and real results. In addition, the voluntary reporting that we see will be somehow biased to make Amazon’s reputation look good, ”Griffin said in an interview with The Telegraph.
It should be noted that this fund is not an Amazon charity event. And the fact that one of the world’s leading corporations intends to invest just $2 billion speaks of the potential return on green investment, stimulating the further introduction of sustainable technologies into business.
Even before that, in February 2020, Bezos announced a $10 billion contribution on his behalf to a fund to fund scientists involved in the development of technologies to combat climate change. Amazon has also built about 100 Rivian electric vehicles, and wants to achieve carbon neutrality for its business by 2040.
In 2020, Bezos bought the naming rights to a hockey stadium in Seattle. A little later, the company announced that it would rename it the Climate Pledge Arena – “Climate Pledge Stadium”.
“Instead of calling it the Amazon Arena, we call it the Climate Pledge Arena, as a regular reminder of the urgent need to take action to combat climate change,” the billionaire commented on the decision on his Instagram:
Посмотреть эту публикацию в Instagram
Prospects for “green” technologies
Data from research firm Pitchbook showed that U.S. cleantech startups raised more than $2018 billion from venture capital investors in 7,1, which is pretty impressive for an emerging industry.
If we talk not about the venture market, but about corporations, such investments can increase the efficiency of a business, help it prepare for the consequences of climate change, and also withstand the crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. In the case of Amazon, the example is Zoox, a self-driving car startup. Founded in 2014, the company was then bought by Amazon, in line with Bezos’ plans to create eco-friendly ways to deliver goods to shoppers.
Hence, there is a hope that other global corporations will take similar steps, motivated by both financial and image advantages of environmental friendliness.
For example, the head of one of the world’s largest investment funds Blackrock, Larry Fink, admitted in a letter to clients in 2020 that climate change will accelerate a “fundamental restructuring of finance.”
By the way, the fashion for “green” investments in recent years is not a novelty, but to some extent a revival of the trend of 15 years ago. Between 2006 and 2008, venture capital investment in the U.S. green tech sector grew by 137%, according to Pitchbook’s reckoning, but that story eventually petered out after the 2008 financial crisis.
Is everything so perfect at Amazon itself?
In fact, the company’s own environmental performance has been criticized not only by many researchers, but also by Amazon employees themselves. A 2019% increase in sales in 20 was accompanied by a 15% increase in carbon dioxide emissions (6,77 Mt) over the same period.
Questions also remain about the real significance of several billion dollars for a company whose value has stepped over $1,5 trillion (the capital of Bezos himself is estimated at $18 billion as of January 2021, 181).
For more than a year now, having formed a group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, Amazon employees have been pushing for the company to take climate seriously. Their goal is to combine a wide choice, fast delivery with the ideas of sustainable development. Relations between the founder of the company and this movement were not the smoothest, there are even rumors of a string of layoffs, which raises many questions.
While the picture is far from ideal. “Amazon prioritizes growth and sales over COXNUMX reduction2. The company has not yet proven that its business model can be sustainable,” the group said following the announcement of the fund.
Still, the company’s ambitions to reduce its carbon footprint are significant. Amazon hopes to be 2025% clean energy by 100. And by 2030, to reduce carbon emissions in all deliveries.
In the era of globalization, the example of Amazon is historically important for companies of all sizes. The desire for sustainable development and the greening of production is just a developing direction for business.
Subscribe to our “Green” channel in Telegram. We publish the latest research, eco-news and tips that will help you live without harming nature.