Amazon

Carbon per million dollars of revenue. The legacy industry-standard reference (CDP, MSCI). Useful for cross-sector context, but distorted by margin — high-margin firms appear artificially efficient. Read alongside the operational and asset intensities for the full picture.

OpEx (operating expenditure) is the running cost of the business — staff, services, energy, materials. This shows how carbon-intensive operations are per million dollars of spend. Removes the margin distortion that revenue-based ratios introduce.

EVIC (Enterprise Value Including Cash) is the firm's total capital footprint — equity + debt + cash + minority interest. The EU's standard intensity measure (SFDR PAI 3) — answers: how much carbon does each million of capital deployed in this business produce?

PP&E (Property, Plant & Equipment) plus leased real-estate assets is the firm's physical infrastructure on the balance sheet. This shows the carbon intensity of that physical footprint — uses Scope 1+2+3 for consistency with the other headline intensities. Surfaces stranded-asset risk for asset-heavy firms.

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Amazon was the world's largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the fifth consecutive year (BloombergNEF) and the world's largest corporate buyer of offshore wind energy in 2024. As of end-2024, Amazon had announced 621 renewable energy projects globally (124 new in 2024) representing 34 GW of carbon-free capacity, including 302 utility-scale wind/solar PPAs and 319 rooftop solar projects. Amazon also expanded into nuclear, leading a ~$500M Series C-1 in X-energy for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) targeting up to 960 MW by 2039, and signed an agreement at Talen Energy's nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. Battery storage capacity reached 2.1 GW paired with solar projects.

Amazon's carbon neutralization focuses on three priorities: reducing deforestation (co-founded LEAF Coalition in 2021), advancing nature-based removals (contributed to development of Verra's ABACUS label for high-quality restoration credits in 2024), and scaling up Direct Air Capture (DAC) by investing in and committing to purchase carbon removal credits from DAC technology. Approach detailed in Carbon Neutralization Methodology; prioritizes reductions in value chain before neutralization outside it.

• Lower-carbon building materials in construction

  In 2024, 49 Amazon building projects used lower-carbon materials/finishes, avoiding at least 77,000 tCO2e. AWS constructed 36 data centers with lower-carbon steel (plus 31 in 2023), 38 with lower-carbon concrete (plus 36 in 2023). AWS updated design standards to require concrete with 35% less embodied carbon vs industry average. Joined Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform; first to use hydrogen direct reduction steel from SSAB.

• Packaging optimization and single-use plastic reduction

  Reduced single-use plastic delivery packaging by 16.4% globally (from 88,698 MT in 2023 to 74,137 MT in 2024). Removed 100% plastic air pillows from N. America fulfillment centers; 134M plastic bags avoided. 12% of packages globally shipped without additional Amazon packaging via Ships in Product Packaging program (nearly 18M unique products). 4.2M MT of packaging materials avoided since 2015.

• Lower-carbon fuels (SAF, renewable diesel, RNG, hydrogen)

  In 2024 Amazon procured 3.7M gallons blended SAF, used 4.7M gallons renewable diesel (up from 286,300 in 2023), 39M gallons RNG in 4,400+ CNG vehicles, and 17,800 hydrogen forklifts at 80+ fulfillment centers. Co-founded ZEMBA and SABA buyers alliances; purchased lower-emission biofuel for >10% of ocean cargo.

• Electric delivery fleet (31.4K+ EVs, 1.5B packages delivered)

  Amazon deployed 31,400+ electric vans globally including 24,000+ from Rivian (up from 19,000 in 2023), delivering 1.5 billion packages by EVs in 2024. Installed 11,770 chargers at 50 delivery stations (largest private network in US). Met India 10,000 EV goal a year early. Ordered 200+ Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 heavy-duty trucks for Europe.

• AWS data center energy efficiency (PUE 1.15)

  AWS achieved a global PUE of 1.15 in 2024 (vs industry 1.25 cloud / 1.63 on-prem), via optimized data center designs, custom Graviton/Trainium/Inferentia chips, and direct-to-chip liquid cooling. New data center components deliver 12% more compute and reduce peak cooling energy by 46% without increasing water usage. Graviton-based instances use up to 60% less energy.

• Supplier engagement on decarbonization

  90% of Amazon's highest-emitting suppliers (representing 50% of Scope 3) have decarbonization plans in place. The Climate Pledge reached 549 signatories at end-2024. Launched Sustainability Exchange July 2024 sharing previously proprietary playbooks. Amazon Devices got commitments from 93 suppliers (up from 49 in 2023) to reduce manufacturing emissions; 38 Device suppliers developed renewable energy plans. Climate Pledge Fund invested in 12 new/follow-on companies in 2024 (32 total portfolio).