Amazon on Thursday announced the first five companies selected to receive investments from its Climate Pledge Fund, a $2 billion initiative revealed in June to support innovations that will help the Seattle-based cloud computing and online shopping behemoth reduce its carbon emissions.
“The Climate Pledge Fund invests in visionary companies whose products and services can empower a low carbon economy,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in statement. “Today, I am excited to announce that we are investing in a group of companies that are channeling their entrepreneurial energy into helping Amazon and other companies reach net zero by 2040 and keep the planet safer for future generations.”
Amazon declined to comment on how much it is investing in each company. A spokesperson said amounts range from hundreds of thousands in seed and early-stage investments to multi-million dollar investments.
The announcement makes clear the ways in which the recipients will help Amazon curb its emissions. The companies include:
- CarbonCure Technologies: Its technology reduces the amount of carbon dioxide generated in concrete production. Amazon is working with CarbonCure for some of its building construction, including its “HQ2” in Virginia.
- Pachama: The company provides verification of the climate impact of forest restoration and conservation projects. Amazon is using Pachama to monitor and evaluate its pursuit of carbon offsets.
- Redwood Materials: Amazon is purchasing electric vehicles to reduce emissions associated with deliveries and Redwood Materials will help recycle electric vehicle batteries and reuse the components. The company, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, is also developing technologies for recycling lithium-ion batteries and other e-waste.
- Rivian: Amazon is purchasing 100,000 EVs from Rivian and participated in its July investment round.
- Turntide Technologies: Amazon is testing Turntide’s energy efficient motors in some of its buildings.
Amazon has vowed to become net-zero carbon in 20 years and urges others to join its Climate Pledge, first announced in September 2019, to do the same. The company shared its sustainability report for the first time this summer, which disclosed that Amazon’s carbon footprint had increased by 15% over a year’s time. The more positive news was that emissions grew more slowly than net sales.
The U.S. is currently struggling to respond to multiple natural disasters that scientists say are being made worse due to climate change, including the West Coast’s wildfires that are destroying homes and filling skies with smoke and the flooding caused by Hurricane Sally in the Southeast.
There is a growing movement toward companies, foundations and individuals investing in businesses working on new solutions for removing planet-warming pollutants and reducing emissions. That includes Microsoft’s $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund and the Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy Venture, as well as the Climate Impact Fund launched by Portland-based VertueLab and Decarbon8-US, or D8, from Seattle’s E8, a network of angel investors.
Bezos in February created his own $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, which appears less focused on investments in tech companies, but rather will target scientists, activists and non-governmental organizations. Bezos initially said that grants would be announced in the summer, but there is no news yet.
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an advocacy group formed by some of the employees, took the lead in publicly pushing the company to address climate issues beginning in 2018. The organization co-filed a shareholder resolution calling for action and posted an open letter in April 2019 addressed to Bezos and his board of directors. This spring, the company fired two of the most visible activists with the group for “repeatedly violating internal policies.”
