Our Climate Economy Spotlight Series is shining a light on the businesses playing a leadership role in driving forward our Net Zero by 2050.
Transitioning to renewable energy is one of the highest-impact ways to immediately lower carbon emissions. This is why Amazon, a TRBOT member, has set the record as the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy. In fact, last year Amazon reached 85% renewable energy across its operations, continuing on the technology company’s path to power 100% of its operations with renewable energy by 2025 – five years ahead of the original target of 2030.
Amazon has announced two renewable energy projects in Canada, both located in Alberta. Once complete, these projects are expected to bring Amazon’s investment in Canada to more than 450 MW, which is expected to supply its local operations with more than 1 million MWh of renewable energy.
Amazon currently has a total of 401 renewable energy projects globally, including 164 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 237 solar rooftops on facilities and stores worldwide.
Along with helping to boost Amazon’s total renewable energy portfolio to 20 GW of electricity production capacity, the two projects located in Canada support hundreds of jobs while providing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in local communities such as Vulcan County.
Since 2014, Amazon has invested in global renewable energy generation to decarbonize its business across worldwide operations, with projects powering a variety of Amazon facilities, including corporate offices, fulfillment centres, data centres, and physical stores, which collectively serve millions of customers globally.
Amazon co-founded and was the first signatory of The Climate Pledge, which calls on organizations to commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. Today, there are more than 400 signatories of The Climate Pledge including companies like Maersk, Procter & Gamble, Visa, PepsiCo, Verizon, Siemens, IBM and Salesforce. Twelve Canadian companies have joined Amazon in signing, including Harbour Air, the Edmonton International Airport, and Holt Renfrew.
As Amazon strives to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, Canada can be proud to be a part of the energy transition and can build on the company’s investments to capture the opportunities presented by the fast-growing climate economy.
To learn more about the multi-trillion-dollar economic opportunity at the Toronto region’s doorstep, visit the Board’s Climate Economy Initiatives page and check out our infographic.
