Amazon launched The Climate Pledge last year, an initiative where it vowed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years in advance, in 2040. This means reaching net-zero annual carbon emissions, both through a reduction in direct carbon emissions but also through initiatives to neutralize any emissions that remain.
The Pledge has been expanding with more companies, and today, Microsoft has officially joined the fray, along with 12 other companies including Unilever, Coca-Cola European partners, and Atos. Microsoft itself has committed to many of its own goals, having already achieved neutral carbon emissions in 2012, and setting the goal of removing all of its historical carbon emissions by 2050. The company is joining The Climate Pledge to promote collaboration between companies to reduce carbon emissions across the board. Lucas Joppa, chief environmental officer at Microsoft, said:
“No one company or organization can meaningfully address the climate crisis on their own. It will take aggressive approaches, new innovative technologies and strong commitment to collaboration across industries and economic sectors(...). By joining The Climate Pledge community and working together, we will be able to collectively rise to the challenge and curb our emissions so that we can make progress toward a net zero future.”
In addition to launching The Climate Pledge, Amazon recently launched the Climate Pledge Friendly program for its online marketplace. Products that meet certain sustainability certifications will be awarded the Climate pledge Friendly tag, certifying them as an environmentally-friendly purchase. A subset of the program, Compact by Design, highlights products that use more efficient and compact packaging that makes them easier to ship, resulting in fewer carbon emissions as part of the delivery process.