Amazon announced the launch of the Sustainability Solutions Hub, a new resource in Seller Central to help sellers with their product and packaging sustainability efforts.
The hub was announced at Amazon’s annual seller conference, Accelerate, and centralises access to several services Amazon had slowly been making available to sellers over the past few years. It is free and optional, but businesses need an account on Seller Central to use it.
The Sustainability Solutions Hub provides all the information sellers will need to get started with Amazon’s existing sustainability programs, including Climate Pledge Friendly, Amazon Renewed, and Ships in Product Packaging.
- Climate Pledge Friendly is a badging system Amazon merchants can use to highlight certifications for use of recycled or bio-based materials, among other things.
- Amazon Renewed repairs and refurbishes products returned for resale.
- Ships In Product Packaging program encourages sellers to package their products in boxes that are robust enough to be shipped, thus cutting the waste of putting a product box inside a shipping box.
As part of the Hub, Amazon will launch a new dashboard where sellers can receive personalised, relevant data and information to track their progress with Amazon’s sustainability programs, such as the percentage of revenue from Climate Pledge Friendly products. This dashboard will also identify opportunities for sellers to take advantage of the programs offered.
This year, Amazon’s sustainability report for the first time showed a decrease in emissions in 2022, albeit only by 0.4%. However, this is a significant improvement from the 18% increase the company saw the year before.
Third-party seller emissions fall under its Scope 3 bracket, the largest bucket of emissions it has. The Sustainability Solutions Hub seemingly looks to address this category and push third-party sellers, which account for about 60% of Amazon sales, to consider their emissions more closely.
Elsewhere, Amazon shared the news that it transported its products on the first ever zero-emission capable cargo ship between Shanghai and Rotterdam. This effort, led by Amazon’s Global Mile team, is part of a new collaboration with shipping and logistics company Maersk to transport Amazon goods using methanol, which produces less greenhouse gas emissions compared to other fuels.
Despite its progress, Amazon recently saw its science-based net zero targets removed from the Science-Based Targets Initiative due to an “expired commitment,” which means that the company failed to establish a credible goal for reducing carbon emissions by the deadline.
Amazon’s Sustainable Solutions Hub will be available at the end of October.
