Amazon's climate pledge to be net-zero by 2040 | Dave Clark and Kara Hurst

Lindsay Levin: So Dave, in just a few months,

you transition into a new role as CEO of consumer retail at Amazon.

That's a big role.

How will climate sit as a priority for you,

given all the other things you'll have on your plate?

Dave Clark: We've spent much of our end of the summer

in smoke-filled Seattle,

unable to enjoy the majestic Pacific Northwest due to all the fires

that encompassed the West Coast of the US this summer.

Climate is a very real challenge for all of us, not just at Amazon,

but in our daily lives at this point.

And I've been focused on this with the team and with Kara for years now.

In fact, we've embedded the sustainability teams

inside of our operations team,

as opposed to being a separate part of the company,

because we wanted those teams connected with the groups

that can actually make change.

LL: Kara, can you describe a couple of the biggest hurdles you face

as you work to reduce the carbon footprint

of a company like Amazon?

Kara Hurst: One of the really exciting but also complex things about Amazon

is the diversity of businesses that we're in,

the range of services and products,

of industries and different types of buildings and stores

and fulfillment centers,

and of course, all of our online infrastructure and business as well.

And we're committed to reaching net zero emissions.

I think our size and our scale can actually be a tremendous advantage.

It forces us to think about our carbon footprint

throughout all of our businesses,

our operations, our technologies, our services, our products.

And at one end,

we want to power our operations by 100 percent renewable energy by 2025,

but we're also making sure that when you receive a shipment,

we're at net zero carbon all the way through those operations.

And we want to do this in a very Amazonian way.

So we took a number of years to build what we call "a carbon system of record."

These are tools that allow us to think about this holistically

across the company.

LL: Dave, Amazon has made a pledge,

you call it "the Climate Pledge,"

to be net zero across your business by 2040.

That's 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

Give us a sense of the scale of transformation that that calls for

across your operations.

DC: It's very daunting.

When we started this process,

we started from a position of science,

of digging in and understanding all the inputs of our business,

what parts of our business create and put carbon into the environment,

what are the elements, each piece of that process,

and how do we improve them.

And as we started looking at that,

we said, well, how are we going to meet these objectives?

And it really requires innovation across almost every aspect of the business,

whether it be in our renewable space,

whether it be in electrification of our vehicles,

whether it be in our packaging and processes,

whether it be working with manufacturers.

Essentially, the entire span of our supply chain

is required to modify to meet the objectives of this over time,

which is why the Climate Pledge was so important.

LL: Kara, the Climate Pledge is not just about Amazon.

You're inviting other companies to join you.

KH: We know with the Climate Pledge we cannot do this alone.

It's going to take companies,

but partnership also with governments and communities and individuals

who will come up with solutions and new technologies.

We want to engage our full supply chain

as well as other companies,

and we're really excited that already 11 major organizations

have signed on to the Climate Pledge with us.

We want to accelerate innovation,

and we've established a two-billion-dollar Climate Pledge Fund

to invest in these companies

whose products and solutions will facilitate the transition

to a low-carbon economy.

So we know this is a very ambitious challenge,

but we want to make the greatest impact in the shortest possible timeline,

and it's exciting to share the complexity about how we think about this at Amazon

with other companies

and invite them to come along with us.

LL: Dave, when a company like Amazon moves,

it can have a huge impact across supply chains.

Give us an example or two of how a decision that you've made

is catalyzing innovation across the sector.

DC: I can tell you, just the example of Rivian.

Rivian is the electric vehicle manufacturer

that is going to build 100,000 electric delivery vehicles

for our delivery fleet.

When we went out and made this investment,

the number of new companies that started to spawn

relative to supporting Rivian,

to new electric delivery vehicles,

to even alternative fuels --

we started getting calls about alternative jet fuel

the day we put out that announcement on Rivian.

So as soon as people saw that we were going to invest real capital

for substantive portions of our operations --

these aren't hobbies,

but putting real money into big pieces of our operations --

it was amazing, the amount of companies that started coming out

who had an emergent technology here

or had a great idea and needed help in getting manufacturing started.

There was just example after example of those.

LL: Dave, Kara, thank you so much for being with us.

We wish you every success with the Climate Pledge

and really can't wait to see the progress you guys are going to make.

DC: Thank you, it's an honor to be here and be part of such an amazing event.

KH: Thank you.