As part of its efforts to achieve 50% net zero carbon deliveries by 2030, Amazon is offering Prime members an “Amazon Day” delivery option. Amazon Day encourages Prime members to choose a day of the week to be their designated delivery day, making it easier to get purchases grouped and delivered together - often in fewer packages, the company says. In fact, in an ongoing test of the program, packaging has been reduced by tens of thousands of boxes.
The initiative supports Amazon’s Shipment Zero project, which the company hopes will enable it to reach its goals of having 50% of its deliveries achieve net zero carbon by 2030 - with an eventual goal of all shipments achieving net zero carbon.
With Amazon Day shipping, customers can shop throughout the week and know that orders, when possible, will be packaged and shipped together “on the day that works best for them,” says Maria Reno, VP of delivery experience at Amazon. The e-commerce giant has tested the program with a group of Prime members and it has already reduced packaging by tens of thousands of boxes, according to Reno.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s SVP of worldwide operations, pointed out in a recent blog post that in operations alone, the company has more than 200 scientists, engineers and product designers working to invent “new ways to leverage our scale for the good of customers and the planet,” Clark wrote.
“Customers are always going to want more selection, faster delivery speed, and lower costs,” he wrote. Part of those lower costs include lowering the costs to the environment, the company believes.
E-commerce initiatives like Amazon Day could ultimately help decrease traffic congestion and emissions in cities. Urban freight traffic attributed to e-commerce has doubled in the past decade, and is expected to double again by 2023, according to José Holguín-Veras, director of the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (via Forbes).
As another way to address the problem of traffic congestion, Amazon has been trying its hand at using a new, fully-electric delivery system, Amazon Scout. These devices, developed by Amazon, are the size of a small cooler, and roll along sidewalks at a walking pace. Scout began delivering packages to customers in a neighborhood in Snohomish County, Washington, in January.
Learn more about packaging and shipping sustainability at the 4th Annual Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference, May 13 – 15, 2019, in Denver.
