Amazon.com Inc. revealed today that its carbon emissions jumped 18% last year as it grew its e-commerce business to meet the huge, COVID-19 pandemic-driven surge in online ordering.

The news came from Amazon’s annual sustainability report, which showed 71.54 million metric tons of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere as a result of its business activities in 2021. The number is equivalent to the emissions that 180 gas-fired power plants pump out on an annual basis. Moreover, it means Amazon’s emissions grew by almost 40% compared to 2019, which was the year in which the company first began disclosing such data.

Amazon did, however, lower its carbon intensity, which measures its emissions per dollar of sales, by 1.9% in 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic was extremely profitable for Amazon, as its e-commerce business was one of the primary beneficiaries of a resulting upsurge in online sales. Millions of consumers opted to do their shopping through the web rather than risk going outside and being exposed to the virus.

The huge increase in demand for online goods meant Amazon had to expand its logistics network of delivery vans, trucks and planes rapidly. It also opened multiple warehouses across the U.S. to help process those additional orders. Amazon said that in 2021, it doubled the size of its fulfillment network.

At the same time, Amazon’s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services Inc., also saw strong growth due to remote work trends. That prompted the company to add more data centers in key locations globally to support additional demand for cloud computing resources.

In 2019 Amazon unveiled a Climate Pledge that commits the company to becoming carbon neutral by 2040. As part of that drive, the company has agreed to purchase 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian Automotive Inc. and get all of them on the road in the U.S. before 2030. In addition, Amazon has also announced a $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in new climate-friendly technologies, some of which it may end up adopting to help it achieve its 2040 goal.

“The challenges we collectively face on the path to net-zero carbon are considerable,” Amazon said in its report. “Many new technologies are showing promise in their ability to reduce carbon emissions, but may still require significant development.”

Despite Amazon’s efforts, it has faced some scrutiny over the way it measures its environmental record. Earlier this year, a report by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting found that Amazon is only counting the carbon emissions relating to Amazon-branded products, as opposed to those it buys from other firms and sells directly to consumers. That’s unlike other retailers such as Walmart Inc. and Target Corp.

However, Amazon says its environmental reporting is in line with guidance from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard on Scope 3 emissions.

Photo: Amazon