Amazon Makes Major Strides in Water Conservation and Replenishment

Amazon has hit a significant milestone: powering its sites around the world with 100% renewable energy—seven years ahead of schedule. That is part of the company's more extensive considerations, according to its 2023 sustainability report, enumerating a range of activities aimed at building a sustainable future for customers, employees, and the environment. Major Achievements in Renewable Energy: In 2019, Amazon pledged that by the year 2030, it would power its data centers, corporate offices, grocery stores, and fulfillment centers with renewable energy. This was surpassed in 2023, with more than 500 solar and wind projects completed all around the world, including 50 in India. For four years running, Amazon had remained the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in both India and around the world as a whole. Electric Vehicles: Decarbonizing Transportation: On the decarbonization of transport within this delivery network, Amazon has announced a large overall package of progress. It runs over 24,000 electric vehicles today across the world, delivering 680 million packages in 2023. In India alone, with the objective of deploying 10,000 EVs by 2025, it had added over 7,200 electric vehicles to its name by now. This fleet would include three- and four-wheel vehicles and two-wheel e-bikes. In the U.S., restructuring operations into eight regions increased delivery speed, reduced the emissions of vehicles, and avoided nearly 16 million miles of travel. Waste Reduction and Doing Away With Single-Use Plastics: It's cranking up its effort to reduce packaging waste and ditch single-use plastics. Since 2015, it has reduced the average packaging weight per shipment by 43%, saving over 3 million metric tonnes of packaging. Close to half of consumer orders shipped from India are now received in their original packaging. Single-use plastic delivery packaging in Europe has been replaced with 100% recyclable paper and cardboard. Amazon's very first fulfillment hub in the U.S. has gone plastic-outbound-packaging-free through the use of 100% curbside recyclable paper. Further reduction in plastic wastage can be seen where 95 percent of plastic air pillows used by the Amazon shipping packaging in North America have been substituted with paper filler, and a target is set to completely remove all plastic air pillows by the end of the year. Water Stewardship Promotion: The company has also pledged to increase water use efficiency while replenishing water sources. In 2023, new U.S. construction design standards resulted in a 40% reduction in indoor water use. AWS achieved 41% toward its commitment to be water positive by 2030. Investments in 15 water replenishment projects returned 3.5 billion liters to local communities. Buildings in India have been specially designed with rainwater harvesting systems and STPs that recycle greywater for irrigation and flushing purposes. Reducing Carbon Footprint Amid Business Growth: Notwithstanding increased business growth, Amazon managed to reduce its total carbon footprint by 3% in 2023 and decreased carbon intensity by 13%. The improvement proves that the company can decouple the rise in GHG emissions from expansion in business, which possibly will be a very significant phase of reducing the overall carbon footprint. Investment in Climate Innovation: Under the Climate Pledge Fund, Amazon has invested in 26 promising climate start-ups, recruited over 500 companies across 45 countries to append their signatures on its Climate Pledge, and is dedicated to driving innovations in packaging by furtherance of recyclable materials as much as possible to support it. Conclusion: Amazon's 2023 Sustainability Report trumpets an all-inclusive business model towards environmental stewardship. With the company on pace to achieve 100% renewable energy usage far in advance of its schedule, continuing to raise the bar with electric vehicles, reducing packaging waste through water efficiency, and decreasing its carbon footprint, Amazon sets a fine example of corporate sustainability conduct. These efforts prove that Amazon is dedicated to building a more sustainable future for all. Source: Amazon