Amazon Gives Up a Key Part of Its Climate Pledge, Deletes Blog Post That Announced 'Shipment Zero Initiative'

According to investigative reporter Will Evans, Amazon recently backed out of a commitment to make 50% of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030. 'Amazon said (PDF) in a statement that it would roll this goal into a broader Climate Pledge to reach net-zero carbon across all its operations by 2040,' reports Insider. 'That's a decade later than the 50% goal, which was called 'Shipment Zero' at the time.' From the report: 'As we examined our work toward The Climate Pledge, we realized that it no longer made sense to have a separate and more narrow Shipment Zero goal that applied to only one part of our business, so we've decided to eliminate it,' Amazon wrote in the statement.

The investigative reporter Will Evans squeezed this information from Amazon and tweeted about it Thursday. Last year, Evans uncovered a study that said the company had drastically undercounted its carbon footprint. At the time, an Amazon spokesman reiterated the company's commitment to cutting emissions, including ordering a fleet of electric delivery vans and buying renewable energy for its electricity needs.

Dropping the specific shipment pledge is noteworthy because Amazon's ecommerce operation relies on vast fleets of vehicles and aircraft to deliver packages to consumers quickly. Most of this activity chews up vast quantities of fossil fuels and spews out greenhouse gases. However, fast delivery is a key selling point for shoppers and the main reason millions subscribe to the company's Prime program. Amazon announced the Shipment Zero initiative in a blog a few years ago. The company has since deleted the post. However, through the magic of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, large corporations cannot rewrite online history. Here's a version of the blog.

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