How Amazon tracks carbon intensity across its operations

Summary

Amazon measures carbon intensity across its diverse business operations to track progress toward its goal of reaching net-zero carbon by 2040. For retail operations, the company monitors carbon emissions per unit shipped, achieving a 39 percent reduction by the end of 2025 compared to 2019 baselines. This per-unit decrease stems from targeted investments in electric delivery vehicles, carbon-free energy, smarter package routing, lightweight packaging, low-carbon fuels, and alternative transport modes like rail. To improve industry comparability and transparency, the company updated its economic carbon intensity indicator in 2025 from emissions per dollar of gross merchandise sales to emissions per dollar of revenue. Carbon intensity is also evaluated regionally and nationally to isolate geographic variations and implement localized decarbonization interventions across supply chain networks.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Amazon reduced its retail carbon emissions per unit shipped by 39% by the end of 2025 relative to 2019.

2. 2

   Decarbonization measures include investments in electric vehicles, carbon-free energy, smarter routing, lighter packaging, low-carbon fuels, and rail transit.

3. 3

   Amazon updated its economic intensity metric in 2025 from grams of CO2 equivalent per dollar of gross merchandise sales (gCO2e/$GMS) to grams of CO2 equivalent per dollar of revenue (gCO2e/$Revenue).