Skip to main content
Sustainability
Sustainability

Communities

We strive to harness Amazon’s scale and innovative spirit to help build strong communities now and for future generations. We invest in the communities where we live and work, helping to generate economic growth, while working alongside community partners to build impactful programs and create solutions to pressing challenges.

Progress

$3.6B committed through the Housing Equity Fund to preserve and create affordable homes

Apartments and townhouses.

$60M+ in cloud computing credits awarded to 403 organizations since 2021

A person holding a baby, sitting on a chair in a kitchen.

7.8M+ students reached from underserved communities globally through Amazon Future Engineer programs

Two people sitting with laptops at tables in a quiet area, with leafy trees in the foreground.

Our approach

We focus on several priority areas across our business and respond to emergent needs where we're uniquely positioned to make a positive difference. Our work especially emphasizes historically underrepresented communities, because we envision a world that embraces diverse perspectives and where all individuals have equitable opportunities.


Our community impact efforts are focused on seven key areas:

  • Supporting economic impact in communities

  • Creating & preserving affordable housing

  • Addressing food insecurity & basic needs

  • Addressing health equity

  • Empowering individuals through education & skills training

  • Supporting disaster relief & response efforts

  • Funding nature in our communities

Supporting economic impact in communities

To continue serving and innovating for our customers, we invest heavily in the communities where we operate.

[01]

A tractor drives in front of rows of solar panels in a green field.
A person wearing an Amazon T-shirt works with a large roll of paper on a machine.
Two people examine bottled products.
  • We’ve made significant investments in the U.S. economy since 2010, contributing more than $880 billion to the national gross domestic product. In 2023 alone, we invested $244 billion in the U.S.
    Read article
  • 47% of the people we hired for operations roles in 2023 were unemployed before joining Amazon, and two of every five U.S. jobs we created over the last five years have been in towns with fewer than 50,000 residents. In the last decade, no private company has created more jobs than Amazon.
    Read article
  • More than 60% of sales in our store are from independent sellers—most of which are small or medium sized-businesses. In 2023, independent sellers in the U.S. sold more than 4.5 billion items—an average of 8,600 items every minute—and averaged more than $250,000 in annual sales. Selling in our store has enabled independent sellers to employ over 1.8 million people in the U.S.
    Read article

Creating affordable housing

All people should have access to housing they can afford, but many communities in the U.S. are facing an affordable housing shortage, with low-income and minority families disproportionately affected. We’re working to address national housing affordability challenges in the U.S. starting in our hometown communities.

 

We work with organizations to make housing available for low-to-moderate income households where it's needed most, including near public transit and in historically diverse, underserved communities.

Explore the Housing Equity Fund

Goal

$3.6B committed to create and preserve more than 35,000 affordable homes

Progress

$2.2B

provided to create and preserve more than 21,000 affordable homes
Goal: $3.6B
$2.2B

Addressing food insecurity and basic needs

We strive to bring healthy, affordable food to our communities through our delivery service providers, donations, funding, and partnerships with organizations helping individuals and families faced with food insecurity. In partnership with local food banks, we’re scaling our food redistribution efforts to contribute to food security in local communities.

Learn more
  • A hand pulling an orange out of a paper crate filled with fresh produce.

    $95M meals delivered to food banks, nonprofits, and households in need in 2024

  • Slices of grainy bread with butter on a wooden cutting board.

    28M+ meals were donated across the U.S. through Whole Foods Market in 2024

  • A head of lettuce growing in a garden.

    38.5M Meals donated through Amazon Fresh product and cash donations to the Feeding America network

Three people move crates of groceries in front of a Whole Foods Market van.

Whole Foods programs

The Whole Foods Market foundations further fulfill the company’s higher purpose of nourishing people and the planet by helping to advance healthy food access, nutrition, and economic opportunities in local and global communities. Additionally, Whole Foods Market runs a Local Producer Loan Program to support small, local, and independent food producers across the U.S. and Canada with business expansion loans.
Discover programs

Empowering individuals through education

We believe in the power of education to unlock human potential, which is why we invest in programs and tools to help children, students, and adults develop valuable STEM skills.

  • Upskilling

    In 2020, we pledged to help 29 million people around the world grow their technical skills with free cloud computing skills training by 2025. More than a year ahead of schedule, we surpassed this ambitious goal.

    31M

    people across 200 countries and territories supported since 2020

  • AI Ready

    2M

    people provided with free artificial intelligence (AI) skills training by 2025

  • Amazon Future Engineer

    Our global childhood-to-career computer science program was created to inspire and educate thousands of students each year from underserved and underrepresented communities. Students explore computer science by meeting Amazon employees in virtual live career talks or exploring our real-world innovations.

    3.9M

    students completed 17.8 million learning hours through Amazon Future Engineer programs in 2023
    Discover program

Supporting disaster relief and response

We mobilize the full breadth of our infrastructure, cloud technology, and global logistics network to help communities affected by natural disasters. Disaster Relief by Amazon delivers rapid logistics and inventory, while AWS Disaster Response delivers information through access to connectivity and data.

Global disaster relief hubs within our fulfillment centers in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia store ready-to-ship essential items that are most needed following natural disasters and other emergencies, including shelter and shelter-repair materials, hygiene supplies, medical equipment, and basic household items.

In 2024, we responded to 39 natural disasters across 19 countries.

1 3

A forest with verdant shrubs covering the forest floor.

Funding nature in our communities

We use nature-based solutions to mitigate carbon emissions outside our value chain and supplement the carbon-reduction efforts we’re driving across our operations. One critical aspect of this work is our commitment to investing in initiatives that protect the natural world, improve wildlife habitats, and promote biodiversity. 
Explore nature-based solutions

Addressing health equity

AWS is harnessing the power of the cloud to advance health equity globally.

AWS Health Equity Initiative

In July 2024, AWS concluded the AWS Health Equity Initiative (HEI), a $60 million commitment of cloud technology to address disparities in global health. Over three years, HEI supported 403 organizations across 39 countries, reaching every continent except Antarctica, reflecting the growing span of health customers and their focus on utilizing technology to address access to health care. 
Discover initiative

Article author image

Transcript