In August 2018 Ethical Consumer contacted Amazon.com for information on its environmental reporting. A questionnaire was returned, and the Amazon Sustainability section on its website was viewed.
The website included pages on Amazon Web Services, and packaging. Under Responsible Sourcing it discussed 'Effective Management and Disposal of Hazardous Substances'. Under Circular Economy it stated, "To encourage our customers to recycle their Amazon devices, we offer free shipping for this purpose."
On its page about Amazon Web Services it stated “Amazon Web Services (AWS) is committed to running our business in the most environmentally friendly way possible." " In January 2018, AWS achieved 50% renewable energy usage.” It listed 6 Amazon Solar and 3 Amazon Wind projects, and stated, "These renewable energy projects are expected to deliver over 2 million MWh of energy annually".
It stated that it had "a long-term commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy usage for our global infrastructure", but this target was not dated. No further dated or quantified environmental targets could be found.
The packaging page stated that in 2017 it had a 16% reduction of packaging waste. It said the packaging was 100% recyclable, but not that it was recycled itself. No information was found on the environmental impacts of its electronic products.
On its 'Sustainability Question Bank' webpage there was some discussion about its transportation of items, and water consumption. Ethical Consumer considered Amazon to have demonstrated a reasonable understanding of its main environmental impacts.
Due to a lack of environmental targets Amazon received Ethical Consumer’s worst rating for Environmental Reporting.
Reference:
https://www.amazon.com/ (13 August 2018)