Alyssa Danigelis
(Photo: Turntide Technologies is one of the first five companies to receive an Amazon Climate Pledge Fund investment. Credit: Turntide Technologies on YouTube)
Amazon identified the first five companies to receive investments from their $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, a fund introduced last June to help it and other businesses become net zero carbon over the next 20 years.
“The Climate Pledge Fund is investing in companies in multiple industries, including transportation and logistics, energy generation, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials, circular economy, and food and agriculture,” Amazon explained.
Investments are going to “visionary companies whose products and services can empower a low carbon economy,” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement today.
These five companies are the first to receive investments:
- CarbonCure Technologies. The company commercialized a portfolio of carbon removal technologies that consume carbon dioxide in concrete during production, permanently sequestering CO2 and enabling the reduction of cement content in mixes without affecting concrete performance, Amazon said. Amazon is using CarbonCure concrete for many of its new buildings, including HQ2 in Virginia.
- Pachama. This climate technology democratizes access to nature-based carbon markets, Amazon said. Their technology “verifies the impact of carbon capture in the world’s forests, allowing organizations and individuals to compensate their emissions with confidence by supporting reforestation and forest conservation projects.” Pachama plans to help Amazon monitor and evaluate nature-based solutions such as investments made by the Right Now Climate Fund.
- Redwood Materials. The company develops and commercializes a full process and suite of technologies for turning end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and e-waste into high-value metals and chemicals, Amazon said. Redwood Materials will help Amazon recycle EV batteries and reuse their components as well as recycling lithium batteries and e-waste from other parts of Amazon’s businesses, the two companies say.
- Rivian. Last year Amazon announced the purchase of 100,000 EVs from Tesla rival Rivian. Amazon and the American electric vehicle manufacturer plan to have 10,000 of the new EVs on the road as soon as 2022, with the full 100,000 deployed by 2030. “The Climate Pledge Fund participated in Rivian’s latest investment round in July, and with proceeds from that investment, Rivian is further developing and integrating its connected electric platform with Amazon’s last mile delivery network,” Amazon said.
- Turntide Technologies. Turntide, formerly Software Motor Company, makes motors that “reduce energy use by 64% on average by optimizing efficiency and control without using expensive materials or rare earth minerals,” Amazon explained. The e-commerce company is piloting Turntide’s motors in several of its buildings, with early results showing “significantly reduced electricity usage.”
Over the summer, Amazon’s own numbers showed that its businesses emitted 15% more carbon dioxide in 2019 than they had the year prior. The e-commerce giant continues to face pressure from employees and environmental groups to make changes — and improve transparency around them.
