Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund has announced three new investments focused on reducing carbon emissions with the ultimate goal of reaching net-zero by 2040.
The e-commerce titan last week touted new partnerships with innovators involved in recycling, carbon storage and 3D printing. These ventures augment its CPF investment portfolio, which has funneled $2 billion into 31 sustainability technology companies since it was launched in 2020.
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One such startup is Molg, which aims to tackle the growing problem of “e-waste,” or trashed electronics, by creating a circular foundation for the autonomous assembly and disassembly of such products with robotic microfactories. The team works with leading electronics manufacturers to design products with the circular economy in mind, lending to the reuse of valuable parts and pieces that often end up in landfills.
Meanwhile, CPF has also opted to finance Paebbl, which creates carbon-storing building materials like concrete. Amazon Web Services (AWS) will use the company’s supplementary cementitious material in the construction of a European data center, which Amazon said will provide learnings about the material’s capacity for carbon capture in such applications.
CPF also named 14Trees as a funding recipient. Also engaged in the construction of low-carbon buildings, the 3D printing firm will use its technology to help build data centers, large buildings and utilities in Europe and the U.S.
Amazon said the purpose of CPF is to bolster the growth of climate-focused and environmental startups that can help it, and other companies, meet their climate goals.
Beyond the investments announced this week, the company has already incorporated the technology of five other CPF-funded firms into its operations, including Forum Mobility, which provides zero-tailpipe-emission trucking solutions for drayage in the state of California. The group builds both Class 8 electric trucks and operates the charging infrastructures needed to power them.
The company is now installing a network of charging depots around the Southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, as well as near the Port of Oakland in the Bay Area and along common truck routes to warehouse destinations. According to Amazon, the one-stop solution will help both large truck fleets and small operators to charge their electric trucks, allowing more electric vehicles to make their way onto the road and become a part of the logistics infrastructure.
Forum first debuted the charging infrastructure earlier in May, as Amazon rolled out its first heavy-duty electric trucks at its ocean freight operations at the Port of Los Angeles.
When it comes to last-mile transport, Amazon has also teamed with electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. In 2019, the partners developed a custom electric delivery vehicle and set a goal of getting 100,000 of the vans on the road by 2030. Over the ensuing three years, the cars were brought to the road and Amazon now has 15,000 in its fleet across the U.S. and Europe.
Within its own operations, Amazon has also deployed AI and robotics innovator Glacier’s technology in its effort to reduce its dependence on plastic and shift to bio-based, compostable or biodegradable materials in its operations. The firm uses AI-powered robotics to automate the sorting of recyclables, capturing real-time data on recycling streams for use by both recycling companies and consumer brands.
Amazon said it’s testing biomaterials in applications where other sustainability solutions don’t exist or aren’t available, and it’s already teamed up with the BOTTLE consortium to develop a new recycling technology for these materials. Glacier’s involvement enables the partners to test ways to parse biomaterials from petrol-based plastics and send them to be recycled.
Other startups that CPF has invested in include Hippo Harvest, which grows U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified leafy greens in greenhouses with the goal of reducing food waste and promoting sustainability in fresh produce, as well as Subeca, which created a simple, secure device to leverage wireless networks to manage water use across its fulfillment centers, grocery stores, offices and data centers.