Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon’s carbon emissions decreased slightly in 2023 after the company ramped up renewable energy purchases and cut down on pollution from construction, hardware, and equipment, according to its latest sustainability report.
Back in 2019, Amazon pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Despite that goal, its carbon emissions actually ballooned soon after — climbing from around 51 million metric tons of CO2 in 2019 to more than 71 million metric tons in 2021. Now it seems that the company’s carbon footprint has shrunk a bit over the past couple years, decreasing 3 percent in 2023 to just under 69 million metric tons of CO2.
To put it in context, Amazon’s carbon footprint last year was roughly equivalent to the annual CO2…
