Stand.earth installs ‘Amazon: Prime Polluter’ message on pavement outside Amazon HQ

SEATTLE (Traditional Puget Sound Salish and Duwamish Lands) — Amazon quietly rolled back its Shipment Zero pledge in May, signaling the company’s intent to prioritize profit over environmental sustainability — and in response, Stand.earth quietly sent a clear message to CEO Andy Jassy last night in Seattle during the company’s “Prime Day” campaign.

The message, painted on 6th Avenue outside the Amazon HQ building in Seattle reads, “CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon: Prime Polluter #Deliver Change.”

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After the message was installed, Stand.earth Senior International Campaigner Victoria Leistman said:

“It’s clear that Amazon is not a climate leader, but instead a Prime Polluter, so we’re ensuring the company’s decision-makers see our message right outside their front door. It’s time for Mr. Jassy to deliver change and clean air, not more dirty truck pollution.”

The Clean Mobility Collective’s “Amazon: Deliver Change” campaign launched in May with a news conference at the Seattle HQ building, and is a global effort to push Amazon to zero-emission deliveries by 2030.

The action comes just weeks after Clean Mobility Collective (CMC) and Stand.earth Research Group (SRG) released a joint investigation that finds Amazon and other leading delivery companies continue to rely on fossil fuels to move their ever-growing e-commerce deliveries, are failing to deploy 100% zero-emission vehicles as promised, and avoid disclosing sufficient data related to last-mile emissions — threatening clean air progress worldwide and amplifying a wide range of health risks and disparities. The report, titled Cost of Convenience: Revealing the hidden climate and health impacts of the global ecommerce-driven parcel delivery industry through 2030, predicts global annual parcel volume could more than double by 2030 and, even without accounting for this exponential growth, Amazon and global e-commerce companies are on track to emit the annual carbon equivalent of up to 44 coal plants.

Several other recent studies confirm the harmful health effects caused by fossil fuel-derived air pollution. A 2021 Harvard University study found that one in five deaths globally can be linked to air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and a Boston University-led study published earlier this month found that the pollutants nitrogen oxide, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and ozone (O3) from oil and gas production contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks, and 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma across the U.S. Regarding the urgent need to transition to clean transportation, an IPCC report published in March finds “rapid, deep and immediate” emissions reductions are critical “in this decade.”

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Media contact:

Shane Reese, Corporate Campaigns Media Director, shane.reese@stand.earth, +1 919 339 3785 (Eastern Time)