🌐 Amazon: Faster Delivery, Lower Emissions

Since January, the questions have been constant.

With the Trump administration stepping back from climate leadership, will companies slow down? Will the money dry up? Will leaders decide it’s safer to say nothing?

The money isn’t drying up. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global clean energy investments will top $2 trillion in 2025—nearly double fossil fuel investments.

While China, Europe, and the U.S. have led that spending, a “new industrial sunbelt” across Africa, Asia, and South America is catching up. Countries like Brazil, Morocco, Indonesia, Egypt, and India account for 59% of the $1.6 trillion pipeline for newly announced projects.

Here in the U.S., it’s a moment of handwringing. Just this week, sustainability expert and author Andrew Winston stirred debate on LinkedIn, asking: Is corporate sustainability dead?

For me, the answer boils down to one word: Amazon.

There are 260 million adults in America. 255 million are Amazon customers. 160 million are Prime members. The company delivers to practically every U.S. household.

Its delivery speed is legendary. What’s less known is that its pursuit of speed is driving down carbon. Since 2019, emissions per package have dropped 33%.

How does the world’s largest online retailer cut carbon while doubling revenue in five years?

This week, I spoke with Chris Roe, Director of Worldwide Environment for Carbon, and Chris Atkins, Director of Worldwide Operations for Sustainability, about how they’re taking carbon out of the fastest, most complex delivery network on Earth.

Two reasons this conversation matters:

1. Amazon’s leaders rarely go on record. This is the first interview the company has granted to discuss its climate playbook in detail.
   

2. Amazon is building that playbook not just for itself, but for hundreds of other corporate giants.

In 2019, Amazon launched The Climate Pledge—a commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement. Normally, at Supercool, we don’t cover pledges. We cover proof. But Amazon is operationalizing its pledge and mobilizing suppliers, partners, and competitors to hit the same target.

565 companies across 46 countries and 60 industries have signed on—Microsoft, Best Buy, Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo, Visa, Maersk, Mercedes-Benz, among them. They’re collaborating, sharing what works, and pooling demand for low-carbon solutions.

Amazon has published its methods online so anyone can use, borrow, or steal them. That’s the point.

Here’s what the playbook looks like.

Caveat: while per-package emissions are down 33% since 2019, total emissions haven’t fallen at the same pace. Shipping volumes keep rising. And Amazon’s growing role as an AI hyperscaler raises new questions about its energy footprint. Both executives acknowledged the tension — and pointed to the operational choices that ultimately address them.

The Amazon Climate Playbook

1. Speed, Engineered for Cutting Carbon
From the outside, faster delivery sounds like more carbon emissions. Inside Amazon, speed is the lever that makes electrification work. The delivery network has been rebuilt around eight U.S. regions — plus similar models abroad — that cut long hauls, shorten last-mile routes, and make more lanes eligible for EVs and rail.

“People assume speed means more trucks, more miles, more emissions,” says Atkins. “But if you’re smart about the network, speed actually takes carbon out. It’s about proximity, not velocity for velocity’s sake.”

2. Electric Fleet, Built to Scale
Amazon’s electric fleet has grown to over 30,000 delivery vans. In the U.S., the fleet runs on 11,770 chargers — the largest private charging network in the country. In Europe, more than 200 heavy-duty electric trucks are coming online to replace long-haul diesel.

“The vehicle is only one part,” says Atkins. “You need the charging infrastructure ready the day it arrives, the routing software tuned to take advantage of it, and the maintenance plan in place before the first delivery.”

3. Renewable Power, Where It Counts Most
Amazon has deployed more than 600 renewable energy projects across 20 countries worldwide, generating 20 gigawatts — enough electricity to power 15 million U.S. homes. Many are sited in fossil-heavy grids like Australia, China, India, and South Africa, where corporate demand accelerates grid decarbonization.

“We go where the clean power has the most impact,” says Roe. “If you’re adding renewables to a grid that’s already 90% clean, it doesn’t change much. Add it to a coal-heavy grid in South Africa, and you shift the carbon math overnight.”

That scale also gives suppliers a shortcut to clean power. Through aggregated procurement, Amazon enables smaller companies in its network to sign onto the same long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) it uses — deals they could never access alone. 

Still, I asked Roe and Atkins directly about the carbon cost of more AI data centers. They didn’t downplay it. Both pointed to Amazon’s push to match that growth with new renewable power and to site projects where the carbon impact is highest. 

“It’s the same logic we use in logistics,” Roe said. “You have to design for efficiency and put the clean power where it matters most — otherwise you’re just chasing demand.”

4. Less Packaging, Less Waste
In 2023, 12% of items shipped in their original product box — no extra Amazon packaging. One major electronics supplier went fully “Ships in Own Container” for Amazon orders, eliminating thousands of boxes per week. Across millions of shipments, that’s less cardboard, less weight, and lower transport emissions.

5. AI as a Brain for Carbon Reduction
AWS isn’t just powering AI for customers — it’s using machine learning to squeeze waste out of Amazon’s own operations. Algorithms optimize clean-energy output, detect inefficiencies in fulfillment centers, and catch problems before they spike energy use.

“There’s so much data… I don’t care how good you are at Excel,” says Roe. “Machine learning is how we optimize these systems in real time.”

In one case, AI flagged an air-pressure leak in a conveyor system in Phoenix before it drove up usage. Fixing it saved enough electricity to power 400 homes for a year.

6. The Climate Pledge, Mobilized
What started as Amazon’s own 2040 net-zero target now has 565 signatories in 46 countries and 60 industries, from Microsoft to Maersk. Together, they’re pooling demand for green steel, low-carbon trucking, and sustainable aviation fuel, and embedding those asks in industry alliances from the Clean Energy Buyers Association to RMI’s Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform.

7. The Playbook, Open-Sourced
The Sustainability Exchange is Amazon’s public library of case studies, data, and operational guides — giving suppliers, partners, and even competitors a head start on proven solutions.

“I feel proud seeing our teams develop solutions that not only scale across Amazon but hold potential to transform practices industry-wide,” says Atkins. “Sharing the playbook makes the whole ecosystem move faster.”

Supercool Takeaway

Amazon’s defining trait — speed — has become its biggest climate lever. Routes are shorter. Fleets are cleaner. Power is renewable. Packaging is lighter. And suppliers are pulled into the race.

The playbook is open for anyone to use.

At Amazon, the path to net zero isn’t to slow down. It’s to go faster and share the map.

This Week’s Podcast Episode

Amazon: Faster Delivery, Lower Emissions

🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other podcast platforms.

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Stat of the Week: 30,000

That’s how many Amazon electric delivery vans from Rivian are already on U.S. streets. The rollout began in 2022; today the bright blue vans are running routes in cities from Tampa to Toledo. Amazon has committed to having 100,000 EVs in its delivery fleet by 2030.

Quote of the Week:

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Related

Decarbonization Efforts Across the Globe

Signatories to The Climate Pledge are retooling their operations to reach their 2040 net-zero targets. From global shipping routes to city delivery fleets, these changes are demonstrating the path forward.

Heineken Decarbonizes Brewery Heat
Heineken has replaced gas boilers with biomass, biogas, and solar-thermal systems at breweries across Europe. In Spain, a solar-thermal installation at the Seville brewery generates up to 68 megawatt-hours of stored heat, supplying steam for brewing and bottling and avoiding more than 1,300 metric tons of carbon emissions each year.

IKEA Expands Zero-Emission Home Delivery
IKEA has shifted to 100% zero-emission home deliveries in 20 cities worldwide, using more than 2,500 electric vehicles operating from 300 delivery hubs. The rollout replaces diesel vans in dense urban areas from Shanghai to Amsterdam, reducing both carbon emissions and local air pollution from last-mile logistics.

Maersk Runs Container Ships on Green Methanol
Maersk has launched more than a dozen dual-fuel container ships, including the Ane Maersk, that can run on green methanol made from renewable energy and recycled carbon. The ships are already in service on major routes between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, cutting lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 65% compared to conventional bunker fuel.

Mercedes-Benz Powers Passenger Car Plants with Renewables
All Mercedes-Benz passenger car manufacturing plants now run on renewable electricity, including on-site solar and wind systems at factories in Germany, Hungary, and the United States. These installations feed clean power directly into assembly lines, welding shops, and paint operations — replacing fossil power at the core of vehicle production.

Telefónica Replaces Copper Network with Energy-Efficient Fiber
Telefónica has decommissioned its legacy copper network in Spain and upgraded to fiber-optic lines, which use up to 90% less energy to transmit the same amount of data. The transition has helped the company cut more than four million metric tons of carbon emissions and save 13,800 gigawatt-hours of electricity since 2010.

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Where Supercool traveled this week:

Podcast:

🌐 The Spiro Circle: A Fresh Take on Clmate Entrepreneurship and Moral Ambition with Josh Dorfman

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