Amazon Sustainability Ambassadors

A Global Community

Since launching in 2017, the Sustainability Ambassadors program has transformed into a collaborative community of more than 450 chapters across the world, and continues to grow. Ambassadors raise awareness of sustainability as a practice for all Amazonians by delivering environmental education through on-site and virtual events. They lead projects and develop initiatives on Amazon campuses and across communities to help fellow Amazonians reduce their environmental impact at home or at work. The program also provides a community for sharing best practices among teams in different settings and locations.

450

Chapters Around the World
7,500

Employee Participants

Amplifying Our Impact

Ambassadors in our operations organization focus on sustainability projects that help sites reduce carbon and operational waste. One example comes from an Ambassador team in Poland, where members redesigned the waste segregation process in their fulfillment center, improving waste recycling rates by more than 90%. At a fulfillment center in France, team members installed a food waste composter for associates to use at the end of their break times, generating compost that our associates are able to take home for their gardens. This solution is now being tested for adoption across our fulfillment centers in Canada. An Ambassador team in Italy identified the challenge of recycling personal protective equipment used to keep employees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team found a waste services provider and set up a process to collect the used equipment, turning hard hats, gloves, and safety shoes into materials used for soundproofing walls and soft flooring for children’s play areas.

Ambassadors in our corporate offices also have a unique opportunity to launch ideas with data-driven analysis using Amazon technology. After auditing waste at our global headquarters in Seattle, Ambassadors developed a proposal to improve waste sorting using DeepLens—a deep learning-enabled video camera from AWS. A team of Amazon employees built a dataset and model that used DeepLens’ object detection capabilities to identify the waste items being discarded and deploy built-in audio to help people identify the correct bin to use for a given item.

"I have always believed in great challenges, in life and at work. I was upset that safety shoes were [being] thrown away. At Amazon, we found a way to recycle them, so that our shoes became floors for children’s playgrounds. Alone we cannot do anything, but together we can change the world."

Maxim B.

Workplace Health and Safety Manager, Vercelli, Italy

Sustainability Summit

In 2020, Sustainability Ambassadors organized the first Inside Sustainability Summit—a virtual educational event available to all Amazonians to learn more about Amazon’s sustainability programs and partnerships. The summit featured a crowdsourcing challenge for Amazon employees to present innovative ideas on sustainability. The winning submission identified strategic partnerships to reduce emissions in our supply chain and contribute to Amazon’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon by 2040. With the support of senior management mentorship, this winning project is being rolled out across Europe in 2021, demonstrating how Sustainability Ambassadors contribute to Amazon’s broader sustainability goals.