AWS: ‘The cloud can do more than modernize programs; it empowers governments to streamline operations and work towards long term sustainability goals’
Ever the over-achiever, Amazon has established its own sort of sustainability pledge, calling it “The Climate Pledge”. The pledge, founded in partnership with Global Optimism, is a commitment to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, as well as achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040, a timeframe that the company has bragged about being 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
Currently, the Climate Pledge has more than 200 signatories that span across 26 industries and 21 countries. The company also invested in a net-zero arena in Seattle, Washington, and named it the Climate Pledge Arena.
Amazon claims to have already made decent progress towards its climate goals, stating that it has reached 65% renewable energy across the business in 2020, up from 42% in 2019, decreased its overall carbon intensity by 16% from 2019 to 2020 and invested $2 billion to support the development of technologies and services that reduce carbon emissions. The company also said it is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.
Amazon’s use of cloud technology also aligns directly with the Paris Agreements guideline about developing and investing in technology that supports climate action. The UNFCCC defines “climate technology” as “technologies that help us reduce GHGs.”
“Developing and transferring technologies to support national action on climate change has been an essential element from the beginning of the UNFCCC process,” states the UNFCCC on its website. “Over the years, technology development and transfer with regard to adaptation has received increasing attention. The Paris Agreement speaks of the vision of fully realizing technology development and transfer for both improving resilience to climate change and reducing GHG emissions.”
While the UNFCCC primarily considers renewable energies — such as wind energy, solar power and hydropower — to be climate technologies, Amazon AWS has demonstrated that cloud technology might be just as compelling as a climate technology.
The city of Santa Fe, New Mexico uses RUBICONSmartCity, a cloud-based technology suite supported by AWS’ cloud services, for more efficient waste and recycling management operation. The result, wrote the AWS Public Sector Blog Team, is “an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled waste collection fleet.”
“By using the cloud to bring a recycling program directly to residents’ doorsteps, Santa Fe dramatically increased the recycling rates of its citizens and enabled the city government to divert more waste away from landfills and reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions,” stated the AWS blog team.
Drivers carry a smartphone equipped with the RUBICONSmartCity technology as they conduct their trash routes, giving them insight into optimized collection routes and live telematics information and data, which is then streamed back to headquarters via the cloud, where it is used to track several route and fleet metrics.
“As seen with Santa Fe, the cloud can do more than modernize programs,” said AWS. “It empowers governments to harness technology to streamline operations and work towards long term sustainability goals, while improving customer service and conserving taxpayer dollars. Cloud technologies, like those provided by AWS and AWS Partners, can help state and local governments make a greater and more immediate impact in the fight against climate change.”
Other Amazon sustainability initiatives include the rollout of 100,000 Rivian electric vehicles in Los Angeles in February 2021 and the launch of a sustainability website where the company reports on its commitments and performance, which reflects the Paris Agreement’s stance on progress transparency and reporting.
