Amazon announced on Wednesday that effectively all of the electricity its operations used last year came from sources that did not produce greenhouse gas emissions. The company reached its goal of 100 percent clean energy seven years ahead of schedule by investing billions of dollars in over 500 solar and wind projects.
The energy generated by these projects is equivalent to the electricity consumed by Amazon’s data centers, corporate buildings, grocery stores, and fulfillment centers in 27 countries. However, critics argue that Amazon’s calculations may create a misleading impression of its climate impact since the energy from solar and wind farms is not exclusively used to power Amazon’s operations.
Amazon’s clean energy investments can produce enough electricity to power approximately 7.6 million U.S. homes. The company aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from all its operations, including delivery vans, planes, and other transportation methods, by 2040.
According to Kara Hurst, the vice president of worldwide sustainability at Amazon, “We’re really excited about, obviously, the goal that we set five years ago and reaching it seven years early. That’s quite an achievement for us.”
While Amazon and other tech companies have pledged to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, questions have been raised about the industry’s heavy investments in artificial intelligence, which consumes substantial electricity through data centers.
