Amazon has announced that it plans to make its package delivery service "greener", with the aim of making half of all its shipments carbon neutral by 2030.
The retail giant, which shipped 5 billion items worldwide through its Prime service in 2017, intends to reach its targeted reduction in carbon emissions by using more renewable energy sources such as solar power, operating electric delivery vans and pushing its suppliers to rethink their packaging to be more sustainable.
Amazon said it spent two years mapping its carbon footprint and creating an "advanced scientific model" to see ways it could reduce carbon use across its verticals. In addition to the "Shipment Zero" initiative, the company has stated that it will publicly publish its carbon footprint later this year for the first time in an effort to promote transparency.
Dave Clark, senior vice-president of worldwide operations at Amazon, remarked: "It won't be easy to achieve this goal, but it's worth being focused and stubborn on this vision and we're committed to seeing it through."
Back in 2014, the company vowed it would run entirely on renewable energy. However, Amazon recently came under fire after Greenpeace published a report revealing that the company had drastically increased its AWS operations in Virginia without adding more renewable energy sources.
The firm is not the only corporate colossus currently making a public, concerted effort to tackle the impact it is having on the environment. McDonald's, Coca-Cola and a number of other household names have recently announced plans to implement similar initiatives.
