What Amazon's Sustainability Report Says on Manufacturing
Amazon works at a scale and pace that few companies can match – an estimated 1,000+ packages per minute worldwide, more than 1.5 million workers and multiple subsidiaries across industries.
The company’s 2024 Sustainability Report details the impact of these activities across emissions, renewable energy, waste reduction and skills development.
While Amazon’s total carbon output has increased, the company highlights multiple actions taken to reduce its environmental impact and maintain long-term sustainability commitments.
The sheer global reach of the company’s operations means that these decisions influence a wide swathe of manufacturing and logistics activity.
Carbon emissions and renewable energy targets
Amazon reports an increase in its absolute emissions, rising from 64.38 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO₂e) in 2023 to 68.25 MTCO₂e in 2024.
However, it records an improvement in carbon intensity, a measure of emissions per dollar of gross merchandise sales (GMS). That figure dropped from 75.6g CO₂e/$GMS to 72.6g CO₂e/$GMS.
A major milestone was the continuation of its 2023 achievement in matching 100% of electricity used in global operations with renewable energy in 2024.
The business is also advancing its EV roll-out – the number of electric delivery vans on the road grew from more than 19,000 to over 31,000. In India, Amazon met its 2025 target a year early by deploying 10,000 EVs.
The company has also matched all operational energy use of active Echo, Fire TV and Ring devices worldwide with wind and solar capacity.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres recorded a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, outperforming the industry average of 1.25. PUE is a measure of how efficiently a data centre uses energy; the lower the number, the more efficient the facility.
In her introduction to the report, Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amazon, says: “Looking ahead, we recognise that the path to being a more sustainable company will never be linear, because we’re charting new territory at an unprecedented scale.
“While we are firm on our goals, our approach will continuously evolve with emerging challenges and opportunities, as we’re seeing with the rapid adoption of AI.”
Amazon also supports emissions reduction through The Climate Pledge, which it co-founded in 2019. The pledge commits signatories to reaching net zero carbon by 2040. In 2024, membership increased to 549.
Sally Fouts, Director of The Climate Pledge, writes: “Reporting like this is a reminder that progress isn’t always linear, but it is essential. When businesses measure and report openly, they create clarity, trust and momentum for others to follow.”
Waste reduction and circular economy actions
Efforts to reduce waste continue throughout Amazon’s logistics operations. In 2024, the company removed all plastic air pillows globally and replaced them with recyclable paper fillers. This helped deliver a 16.4% reduction in single-use plastic packaging.
Amazon also improved its landfill diversion rate, an indicator of how much waste avoids landfill, which has risen to 85%, compared with 84% in 2023 and 82% in 2022.
In both the US and Europe, Amazon continues work to halve food waste by 2030. In 2024, it donated the equivalent of 81 million meals.
In water management, Amazon introduced a new target to return more water to communities in India than it uses in its direct operations there by 2027. AWS is also aiming to be water positive by 2030, with the company reporting 53% progress towards that objective.
Skills training and local investment
Beyond its operational emissions and materials targets, Amazon’s community impact spans housing, digital skills and educational outreach.
It has committed US$2.2bn towards creating or preserving more than 21,000 affordable homes in the United States. The aim is to raise this to US$3.6bn for more than 35,000 homes.
AWS also met its goal of distributing US$60m in cloud computing credits to support organisations working on global health. In training, more than 31 million people have taken free cloud computing skills courses, and over two million have completed artificial intelligence (AI) skills training.
Amazon Future Engineer initiatives reached over 7.8 million students in underserved communities around the world, adding another pillar to the business’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.
Kara concludes in the report: “No matter what we’re faced with in the future, we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to sustainability and will continue to invest, innovate and obsess over our progress each year, with the same intensity and focus that has defined Amazon from Day One.”
