Despite its market dominance and massive climate impact, Amazon performed very poorly across this scorecard’s five categories. It was the worst performing of the three retailers assessed. The company failed to set absolute emissions reduction targets, and offers very limited transparency into its emissions breakdown, energy use and supplier engagement. It has no discernible goals to reduce the climate impact of its raw materials sourcing. Shipping is a huge category for the three retailers in this scorecard, and despite having set a target of Zero Emission Vessels by 2040, which is too late, Amazon reported a huge increase in its emissions now and cited very limited actions to bring them down. Amazon needs to improve in all the assessment areas, but should begin by significantly improving its dismal transparency.
Total Score
Emissions
About the Scorecards
The fashion industry is responsible for 2- 8% of global emissions but are fashion brands doing enough to tackle their growing climate impact? The updated 2023 Fossil Free Fashion Scorecard analyses 43 fashion companies on their climate action.
Read ReportScore Breakdown
GHG emissions:
Amazon has set a net zero target for its entire value chain by 2040 but has not set an absolute reduction target of 55% by 2030.
Renewable energy:
Amazon has set a renewable energy target in its own operations of 100% by 2025 and has committed to using electricity that is additional to the grid.
Amazon has yet to set a target of 100% renewable energy for its supply chain by 2030, which is an essential step for decarbonising its manufacturing.
Coal phase out:
Amazon has not publicly set a target to phase out coal-fired boilers from its supply chain by 2030 to reduce air pollution and cut emissions
GHG emissions:
Amazon publicly reports GHG emissions in its own operations and in its supply chain, and provides a limited breakdown of its Scope 3 emissions.
Energy use:
Amazon publicly reports its renewable energy sourcing for its own operations, but does not provide its overall energy use.
For its supply chain, Amazon does not publicly report its suppliers’ energy use, renewable energy use or how that energy is sourced.
Suppliers:
Amazon provides a partial supplier list to Tier 1 or 2.
Amazon does not report providing its apparel suppliers with training and resources to help them make energy efficiency improvements. Amazon does not report providing its major suppliers with financial incentives for energy efficiency measures, and “encourages” but does not require them to make energy savings as a condition of contract.
Amazon does not require suppliers to reduce thermal coal demand in their manufacturing processes, or set a cut off for onboarding new suppliers with thermal coal boilers.
Amazon does not report providing its suppliers with training and resources to help them transition to renewable energy. The company does not report providing financial support or incentives to make the energy transition, but does provide the SME Climate Hub which supports businesses “like those in its supply chain” to reduce their emissions. Amazon does not require suppliers to use renewable energy as a condition of contract.
Amazon “encourages” but does not require its suppliers to provide facility level data via the Higg Index and annually report GHG emissions, and does not currently require suppliers to set GHG emissions reduction targets.
Amazon has not made any commitments to phase out fossil fuel based materials
Amazon has not made a public policy to ban the sourcing of leather from the Amazon Biome or taken measurable steps to ensure that Amazon leather is not contributing to deforestation, and the company does not apparently have processes in place to avoid leather sourced from deforested regions. Amazon also does not have a general policy against contributing to deforestation through other materials including cellulose-based fabrics, but has invested in programs to end Amazonian deforestation through the Climate Pledge.
Low-carbon materials:
Amazon has not committed to increasing closed-loop apparel-to-apparel recycling for synthetics and plant-based materials. Amazon has committed to reduce the impact of its raw materials sourcing by increasing the amount of organic, recycled or Better Cotton, but has not committed to switching to organic cotton or cotton sourced from regenerative agriculture by 2030.
Increasing circularity:
Amazon is not acting to increase circularity and address overproduction by policies to improve the repairability, resale, durability and recyclability of its clothes. Amazon offers some product repair and refurbishment, but this service is not available for apparel.
Amazon does not publicly report its material mix, its volume of deadstock or how it manages or disposes of its deadstock to reduce waste.
Amazon does not explicitly report its shipping emissions, and does not provide a breakdown of its transportation methods, but shipping is included in its net zero target.
Amazon does not have a policy to avoid aviation and commit to slower shipping methods such as maritime, rail and land, but does report having purchased sustainable fuel made from waste cooking oil to reduce shipping emissions in ocean shipping, working with Maersk EcoDelivery to reduce marine shipping emissions, and investing in low-carbon aviation fuel. However, Amazon reported a massive 44.7% increase in its related third-party transportation, packaging, and upstream energy emissions from 2019 to 2022.
Amazon has committed to transitioning to zero emissions vessels (ZEV), though its target is still too slow at 10% of shipments by 2030 and 100% by 2040.
Amazon has committed to transitioning its last mile delivery to zero emission vehicles, with 50% of shipments made with net-zero carbon by 2030.
Amazon is in coalition with 39 other companies to sign on to the Clean Energy Demand Initiative (CEDI) Global Letter of Intent. This Intent calls for a global clean energy transition in partnership with governments, non-profits, and other organizations. This collective action has the potential to drive 32 to 386 Billion USD of clean energy infrastructure. Additionally, Amazon joined 11 other companies in a joint Clean Energy Demand Initiative letter of intent with the Philippines government. CEDI looks to energise private sector investment by leveraging both governmental policy and corporate clean energy commitments that grow renewable energy purchasing. Amazon also signed a statement of mutual aspiration encouraging the government of Indonesia to accelerate a renewable energy transition to achieve at least 50% RE energy mix by 2045. Amazon receives a high score in this category for effectively using its platform to advocate for a clean energy transition.