How big is Amazon carbon footprint 2021?
Amazon is polluting more and more: in 2021 its carbon footprint grew by 18%.
Amazon lost 5,872 million in the first 6 months of 2022 due to rising costs, inflation, supply chain problems and the war in Ukraine, although invoicing 123,234 million, 2,000 million more than expected. However, 2021 was a great year for those of Jeff Bezos, something that also translated into an increase in the pollution generated.
Specifically, Amazon achieved a net profit of 33,364 million dollars in its fiscal year of 2021, which meant an increase of 56% compared to the previous year, which resulted in a profit of 21,331 million. The pandemic and its restrictive measures suited the e-commerce giant well. Therefore, Amazon's carbon footprint rose by 18% in 2021.
Amazon carbon footprint 2021
These are data extracted from the annual sustainability report issued by the company this Monday. In it, it is detailed that Amazon's activities emitted the equivalent of 71.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, in response to the expansion of its business to meet the increased demand for e-commerce generated by the coronavirus.
The figure implies an increase of 18% compared to 2020 and an increase of almost 40% compared to 2019, the year in which Amazon began to disclose information regarding its carbon footprint for the first time.
On the other hand, the document details that Amazon reduced its carbon intensity, which measures emissions per dollar of sales, by 1.9% in 2021, compared to a decrease of 16% in 2020.
The massive influx of orders and the increase in the weight of electronic commerce were features that characterized the markets due to the pandemic. Amazon expanded its logistics network of vans, planes and delivery trucks and opened new warehouses to process the flow of orders.
Amazon carbon footprint 2021 facts
In fact, in 2021 alone it doubled the size of the compliance network it had built over the previous 25 years. In addition, it focused on the cloud and more than fattened the capacity of Amazon Web Services by adding new data centers.
The ways in which Amazon registers its environmental footprint are under scrutiny: this year a report carried out by Reveal of the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that they only account for product carbon emissions from the use of Amazon-branded products, and not those that it buys from manufacturers and sells directly to the customer, unlike Walmart or Target.
According to CNBC, an Amazon spokeswoman added that Amazon's third-party sellers "control their own carbon emissions accounting." To establish its measurements, the American company is guided by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.
Amazon's purpose is to be carbon neutral by 2040, as part of its climate commitment plan announced in 2019.
Amazon carbon footprint 2021 details
Among its moves aimed at this end are the purchase of 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian Automotive that will be on the road in the United States in 2030 or the investment of 2,000 million dollars from a venture capital fund to invest in new climate technologies.
However, Amazon is one of the companies that pollute the most: a report — collected by The Verge — places it as the eighth on the planet that emits the most greenhouse gases by shipping maritime cargo. In 2019, the 15 companies generated the same amount of emissions as 1.5 million American homes in one year.
- Amazon achieved a net profit of 33,364 million dollars in its 2021 fiscal year, which represents an increase of more than 56% compared to the previous year.
- The strong increase in business propelled by the pandemic has its negative counterpart in pollution: the carbon footprint of the e-commerce giant grew by 18% in 2021, according to its recent annual sustainability report.
