Critical Thoughts on Climate Change, What Amazon Could Do
I would like to preface that this is a loose critical paper final on climate change. My focus aimed at Amazon as a lot of light has been shone upon the company’s efforts to sustainability.
Global warming activism always seems to be readily conscious to criticize and correct individuals to change their habits between choose alternative packaged items and their carbon footprint. This is subscribing to the idea that all it takes is an individual’s effort to change for climate change to settle, but we have been doing this for decades since we have discovered climate change has been ramped. There are so many variables to consider when we pinpoint individuals. Requesting alternative packaging, changing lightbulbs, shifting to electronic cars, or changing diet habits that require little to no meat. There is a limit as to how much individuals can fluctuate as it is all based on their living situations, the area, and financial stability to purchase into this system. Which in itself is a huge issue considering these options are not regulated in the idea for climate change, but capitalism and reliant on individual actions.
As opposed to massive corporate companies that have the main hold on the capitalism and consumerism market. Whether that is based on the main three impacts of climate change between fossil fuels, e-commerce, and agriculture. According to an article published in 2017 by The Guardian, roughly 100 oil and gas companies have been the pinacol source of 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions for nearly 32 years in the making. Of the 70%, more than half of the global industrial emissions can be traced back to 25 corporates and state-owned entities. This is key to understanding how much of an impact American companies have and in partnership with the biggest one yet, that has grown immensely over the years and drastically as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic took course, Amazon. The reason why I want to be critical is holding accountability on Amazon’s promised efforts with Amazon Sustainability, and as the leading e-commerce company, many others akin to their business will most likely follow in their footsteps. I understand companies need time to change for example cycling out old packaging products not going to dump them to use the new product, but when your company is consistently emitting carbon dioxide, change needs to happen immediately. There are internal changes that can be done regarding the e-commerce functionality and how can we pivot off from 2-day shipping to alternative ways of receiving the product, to possibly offering other solutions Jeff Bezos or the new CEO Andy Jassy could do with the company’s plans and pledges.
Consider the options of Amazon’s list of services from apparel, electronics, beauty products, food and groceries, health and personal care items, kitchenware, tools and automotive items, games, and sporting goods. An assortment to fulfill and capitalize, whether they are the primary seller or not. Amazon has a monopoly on its website and mobile applications. Prime Membership is also a key incentive to subscribe to various shipping options. However, this semantics is not the issue for this essay. It is all on the Delivery benefits.
The expedited shipping comes with so many fine lines most average users will not consider. As the format goes the standard 2-Day delivery, Amazon is primarily known for, which entails those items will be shipped whether a warehouse has this item in stock and will most likely be shipped in separate boxes. Within the United States of America, this excludes Alaska and Hawaii, as the shipments do take a touch longer to reach these locations, but it is still promised to these locations. 1-Day delivery, this mainly applies to customers that are within the outskirts of certain fulfillment centers and areas, this just means your items are delivered overnight. This option varies based on the time of when you place this order as may very well end up two days out. Same-day (2 hours) delivery, from what I believe applies to individuals who are within the areas of a fulfillment center or ordering from the Amazon Fresh department, this is regarding produce. Prescription delivery is based on medicine refills if you decide to have Amazon refill and send out your medication to you. Release-Day delivery is for event items such as new phones, gaming consoles, and video games, these items are shipped typically a couple of days ahead to arrive at your door roughly by release date or a day after. Lastly, No-Rush shipping… typically last on the list of delivery dates and may be swayed with ‘will come in fewer boxes’ and thrown in a small percentage off of your next purchase.
This is where I have a gripe with this option, typically what person is going to decide they would want their items delivered days to weeks out from their order? This may sway those who consider the severity of need of their items, but rarely is it ideally incentivized that waiting for lesser boxes is their reason to choose this option. There is no visual or breakdown of what No-Rush shipping can offer. The rewards given are quite small and item exclusive to its rewards in comparison to website extensions pointing out cheaper options or their shopper panel rewards. At best, this only incentivizes those who feel guilt shopping on Amazon. Find ways to visually let your Users know what their choices of Prime 2-day shipping has over the No-Rush shipments, rather than slapping on that “this is the green option”. Let your shoppers know there might be a similar item that can be shipped from the same location and outsource from one place than giving them absolute freedom on their options. Treat every immediate shipping as you would with Alaska and Hawaii, if not expand more about why Amazon Shipping Days can be the best choice between fewer boxes and rushed delivery. We very well know that regardless of choice though, these fulfillment centers and shipments still harbors a lot of carbon emissions traveling to each household.
In 2019 Jeff Bezos made commitments to greenhouse gas emissions with Amazon Sustainability, where Amazon is committing to build a sustainable business for its customers and the planet. The Climate Pledge hopes to be a net-zero carbon company by 2040, claiming to be 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. According to Associated Press News, over the past year as of 2019, Amazon’s carbon footprint rose 15% emitted 51.17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalency of 13 coal-burning power plants running for an entire year. From the first recording of Amazon’s carbon footprint in 2018, scaling at 44.4 million metric tons. This was only after employees and investors pressured the company with concerns about climate change. In May 2020, as many news outlets covered about Amazon fired two employees that spoke out denounced the working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticized the climate policies Amazon promises. As we needed to have contactless deliveries and pickups are to mitigating the spread provided by Amazon, but the issue now lies in the fulfillment centers and conditions of the warehouse workers. The criticism of your former employees at an office level as User Experience Designers to hold the company accountable. Vice President of Amazon, Drew Herdener commented “we support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any internal policies.” This runs on the sentiment that you don’t mind if employees talked about other companies, but criticism on Amazon, we cannot abide by it. Being in the public eyes is how we have our voices heard in such a massive corporate company, no supervisor or manager is going to take this up. This is silencing the voices of those who work at or around the warehouses of the company.
Being encapsulated in the warehouses with an airborne virus, I can only assume how these employments play out. Needing for expanded sick leave, higher pay, and proper shutdowns in the event of tested employees. Many relief and fulfillment centers are typically strict on the works, being on their feet and needing to meet a quota by the end of their work shifts. If they meet or exceed their quotas for the week, they are ‘incentivized’ to push for more numbers. Many individuals in these centers come forward about their experiences at the warehouses, being met with words of being disposable. This is primarily the front of their employees, in the words of Jeff Bezos on never stop experimenting “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness,” do this with business decisions, not on the health and safety of your employees on any level of the company. This is just basic health and reasonable benefits within trying times moving forward from the pandemic restrictions.
Which begs to differ Jeff Bezos’ views and aid to climate change. As forementioned about the Amazon Sustainability and the Climate Pledge,
- Net Zero Carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
- 100% off of renewable energy by 2025.
- Shipment Zero, making all Amazon shipments net-zero carbon through this system, aiming to be 50% in by 2030.
- Electric vehicle deliveries, purchasing 100,000 electric-powered vehicles.
- Climate Pledge Fund, through investing $2 billion to support the development of technologies and services that reduce carbon emissions and help preserve the natural world.
- Right Now Climate Fund, investing $100 million in reforestation projects and climate mitigations.
Now, these are all claims pulled from the Amazon Sustainability site as announced back in 2019. Currently, there is no carbon footprint data report of Amazon’s 2020–2021 emissions report, given the circumstances, there is no doubt that their footprint is just as much as the previous years. There is no transparency of what is in the works but headlines about donations and the Climate Pledge Fund. Understandably so that donations are at a person’s discrepancy to an amount, but as Australia faced natural disasters that still struggling to recover to this day, the donation was at 1 million Australian dollars ($690,000). The coronavirus relief, Bezos according to The Washington Post a company he owns, donated $100 million to Feeding America and up to $25 million for All in WA, a statewide relief effort in Washington. Later expressing Amazon’s donation has spent upwards to $4 billion in their sustainability report. These donations in comparison to a median wealth American roughly estimates to a fancy dinner for two. I’m not saying he needs to donate half of his wealth to spread around for everyone when disasters hit, even for the wealthiest man in America. However, these are sprinkles of change with little to no legitimacy. We only know about Amazon’s carbon emissions because they were criticized to make public data, reporting for only two years. All we can hold accountable at this moment is the All In: Staying the Course on Our Commitment to Sustainability, while aiming for Renewable Energy their carbon footprint is still up. Stating by the end of 2020 there will be found land and labor to build 127 solar and wind projects across the globe. Hoping to halve their shipment to be net-zero carbon by 2030, fully 100% by 2040. As of 2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 new electric vehicles from Rivian, a U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer. 10,000 of them are planned to be used as early as 2022, and all 100,000 to be on the roads by 2030. Sustainable packaging by using 100% recyclable packaging without the need for additional shipping boxes. This needs to include the packing material, labels, and sealants. The Right Now Climate Fund at $100 million funds is set to restore and conserve forests, wetlands, and grasslands around the world. This is in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. However, these efforts can fly in so many directions without the proper jurisdiction on restoration or conservation, as uncontrolled deforestation and natural disasters are all a variable. Lastly, the reoccurring Climate Pledge Fund, which is Amazon and other undisclosed companies set to meet goals by this pledge. Dedicated as aforementioned $2 billion in funding “to be invested in visionary companies whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition of the low carbon economy.”
This plan is laid out in a 122-page document with no outward representation of the efforts. Behind the scenes, actions are laid out in a nicely packaged document embedded on a polished website. We are not business colleagues that speak in legal terms, but we are also not asking for polished and lavish social media sites of efforts. We are asking for updates, visuals of projects that are not going to be lumped into one massive feed about the company, socially, globally, and day to day meets. We want words and flaunted money to be met with action. Change in the Amazon functionality, to the treatment of workers of all levels of the company, and its investments. The vehicles projects with The Nature Conservancy, the packaging, and the companies of interested investments. This is costing a small fraction of Jeff Bezos and Amazon in comparison to the Earth we live on and the people employed and users who may need the provided services of Amazon.
