Amazon’s sustained investment in carbon free energy, transport electrification and sustainable packaging is accelerating Europe’s low carbon transition while strengthening its industrial competitiveness, according to independent analysis by Frontier Economics.
Since 2021, Amazon has invested €17 billion in low carbon technologies across energy, transportation and logistics, and packaging in the EU and the UK.
According to a new report’s findings, these investments have supported up to 144,000 jobs across Europe and generated as much as €11 billion in gross value added (GVA) across Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and wider European supply chains.
Andreas Marschner, vice president of worldwide sustainable operations at Amazon, said: ‘Amazon’s investments in Europe demonstrate that decarbonisation and economic competitiveness go hand in hand. By deploying clean technologies at scale, working with innovative European partners, and engaging in policy frameworks that enable system wide change, we are helping build the low carbon economy Europe needs while supporting jobs, growth and industrial leadership. This report shows the tangible impact private sector investment can have – but it also makes clear that no company can deliver this transition alone. Achieving our Climate Pledge goal of net zero by 2040 will require sustained collaboration across industry, government and civil society.’
The report highlights Amazon’s role as the largest corporate purchaser of carbon free energy in Europe, having invested in more than 120 European projects that together will provide more than 8.7 GW of new carbon free energy capacity. By acting as an anchor ‘offtaker’ – committing to long term PPAs with developers including Iberdrola, Engie, Ørsted and Scottish Power – Amazon provides the financial certainty that enables developers to build new renewable generation at scale, not just for its own operations, but for the wider grid that powers homes, hospitals and schools.
The report documents how the company’s €1 billion pledge in 2022 to decarbonise its European logistics network is translating into real world deployment at scale. By end of 2025, Amazon and its delivery partners had deployed more than 10,000 electric delivery vehicles across Europe, installed thousands of EV charging points across its European facilities, and placed one of the largest orders of electric heavy duty trucks in Europe to date, with more than 100 Mercedes-Benz Trucks vehicles now operating across major freight routes. Amazon is also working to decarbonise transport modes beyond road freight, including through the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), which it co-founded to aggregate corporate demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and help scale low carbon fuel supply chains.
The report also captures Amazon’s progress on packaging, noting that since 2022, 100% of its packaging used in its European fulfilment centres has been recyclable and paper based – through collaboration with European companies including DS Smith, Mondi and Novamont – making it one of the first major e-commerce companies to move away from single use plastic packaging in its European distribution network.
The report features further evidence of Amazon’s leadership in decarbonising Europe, including:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres in Europe are designed to use significantly less energy and water than typical facilities. The company has also developed custom computer chips that deliver the same performance while using far less power – helping reduce the environmental impact of the digital services that millions of Europeans rely on every day, from banking to public services. The report highlights this focus on energy efficiency, alongside investment in carbon free energy, as a key part of its contribution to Europe’s low carbon transition.
- In Poland, Amazon is helping pioneer the electrification of one of Europe’s most critical freight corridors. Through a collaboration with infrastructure provider PragmaCharge, the company is working with third party carriers to deploy battery electric trucks along the A2 and A4 motorways – supported by dedicated charging hubs and Poland’s landmark public incentive programme for zero emission heavy duty vehicles. The initiative demonstrates how large shippers can act as anchor demand partners, aggregating volume and de-risking investment to help unlock zero exhaust emission freight at corridor scale.
- More than 70 automated packaging machines are now operational across European fulfilment centres, reducing average packaging weight by more than 26 grams per shipment, while AI systems have reduced cardboard box use by more than 35% over five years. Today, more than 50% of the company’s European shipments arrive to customer’s hands in reduced, recyclable delivery packaging.
Taken together, the report makes clear that Amazon’s investments are not only reducing its own environmental footprint but also helping to de-risk investment in the technologies and infrastructure that will underpin Europe’s green transition and long term industrial competitiveness. Through the Climate Pledge Fund, it has backed early stage European climate technologies – from green hydrogen and carbon mineralisation to battery recycling – while the Amazon Sustainability Accelerator has supported more than 70 European start ups between 2022 and 2025.
Yet the report is equally clear eyed about the road ahead. The path to widespread electrification of logistics, large scale carbon free energy transition and a truly circular economy for packaging depends on systemic factors that no single company can address alone – grid modernisation, stable energy costs and a predictable, harmonised regulatory environment across borders.
The full report, ‘Powering Growth, Reducing Emissions: Amazon’s Investment in Low Carbon Europe’, is available here.
https://couriernews.co.uk/blog/amazon-invests-e17-billion-in-low-carbon-technologies-across-europe/