Amazon Climate Pledge Fund Makes First Investments

Image: Rivian R1T electric pickup truck. Source: Rivian

Three months after launching its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund to support the development of sustainable and decarbonizing technologies and services that will help Amazon and other companies be net-zero carbon by 2040, Amazon has announced the first five recipients:

• CarbonCure Technologies: CO? utilization technologies for the world’s most abundant man-made material: concrete. The retrofit CarbonCure Technology enables concrete producers to use waste CO? to produce stronger, more sustainable concrete. Amazon is working to lower the embodied carbon footprint of its buildings by using CarbonCure concrete in many of its new buildings, including HQ2 in Virginia.
• Pachama: Data, artificial intelligence and automation technologies that verify the impact of carbon capture in the world’s forests, enabling organizations and individuals to support reforestation and forest conservation projects by compensating their carbon emissions with confidence. Pachama will help Amazon monitor and evaluate nature-based solutions, including investments made by the Right Now Climate Fund.
• Redwood Materials: Developing technologies for recycling end-of-life Lithium-ion batteries and e-waste into high value metals and chemicals. With Amazon’s firm commitment to electric delivery and electrification infrastructure, Redwood Materials will help Amazon properly recycle Electric Vehicle batteries and reuse their components.
• Rivian: Electric trucks, SUVs and vans. Amazon announced last year that it had purchased 100,000 Rivian electric delivery vans, 10,000 of which will be on the road as early as 2022, with all 100,000 vehicles in service by 2030. The Climate Pledge Fund participated in Rivian’s latest investment round in July, and Rivian is further developing and integrating its connected electric platform with Amazon’s last mile delivery network.
• Turntide Technologies: Ultra-high-efficiency smart motors that reduce energy use by 64% on average without using expensive materials or rare earth minerals. Amazon is piloting Turntide’s motors in a number of its buildings and the results so far have demonstrated significantly reduced electricity usage.

The Climate Pledge Fund is another important example of how the collaborative effort of The Climate Pledge can accelerate the transition to a net zero world. These investments will scale new technologies, helping these organizations speed up the pace at which operational emissions can be reduced. This is how a whole-economy approach to tackling the climate crisis looks. Together these companies demonstrate that there are endless possibilities in the clean, healthy recovery we must create together.

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Source: Equities News