Our Buildings
Amazon operates thousands of world-class facilities that serve our global employees, customers, and communities. We strive to reduce the environmental impacts of our buildings while creating a positive experience for the people who occupy them.
We use innovative design to build sustainability into our physical campuses.
Energy-efficient lighting, low-flow water fixtures, composting, and recycling are common features in our corporate offices.
Many of our office buildings offer plazas and open green spaces for public use, along with green roofs that provide outdoor amenity space while supporting ecological functions like stormwater management. We also offer plug-in electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle parking to encourage low-carbon transportation for employees and visitors.
- 10% reduction in the amount of embodied carbon compared to typical construction practices, followed by a commitment to offset 100% of the remaining embodied carbon.
- 50% reduction in water consumption beyond national standards, using low-flow fixtures and reclaimed water.
- 30% energy savings below the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers baseline.
- Electrified building systems powered by 100% renewable energy through a combination of on-site solar and local off-site solar generation.
Our fulfillment facilities are state-of-the-art warehouses where we process orders for our customers.
In 2021, we conducted pilot projects at several new fulfillment facilities using a low-carbon concrete technology produced by CarbonCure, a company Amazon has invested in through The Climate Pledge Fund. CarbonCure’s technology enables the concrete industry to sequester carbon permanently in fresh concrete, reducing embodied carbon at new construction sites.
We also launched pilot projects at fulfillment facilities in North America to improve our on-site water management. This involved retrofitting sites to divert excess water runoff away from stormwater drains and toward ponds that exist on each facility’s property.
Many of our fulfillment facilities are powered by on-site solar, where a rooftop installation can power up to 80% of the facility’s energy use.
Sustainable building design is also important in our physical stores.
In early 2022, our Amazon Fresh location in Seattle, Washington, became the world’s first grocery store to pursue Zero Carbon Certification from the International Living Future Institute, a leading nonprofit dedicated to advancing sustainable building practices.
More than a dozen upgrades were incorporated throughout the development of the store, including a fully electric kitchen that reduces the need for fossil fuel combustion in the store, electrifying the store using 100% renewable electricity sourced from Amazon’s renewable energy projects, incorporation of low-flow fixtures in restrooms and kitchens to reduce water use, and free electric vehicle charging for customers.
Additionally, nearly 50 stores utilized refrigeration systems that rely on natural refrigerants with low global warming potentials, and over 70 stores had solar rooftops.
