Amazon makes first Climate Pledge Fund investments
Five sustainable technology companies are the initial recipients of distributions from a $2 billion venture investment program overseen by Amazon.
Initially announced in June 2020, the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, is designed to enable Amazon and other companies to meet The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040. Amazon is providing initial funding of $2 billion to back visionary companies whose products and services will facilitate the transition to a zero-carbon economy.
The first five companies that the Climate Pledge Fund is investing in are:
• CarbonCure Technologies: Has commercialized a portfolio of carbon removal technologies that consume carbon dioxide (CO2) in concrete during production, permanently sequestering CO2 and enabling the reduction of cement content in mixes without impacting concrete performance. Amazon is working to lower the embodied carbon footprint of its buildings by using CarbonCure concrete in many of its new buildings, including HQ2 in Virginia.
• Pachama: Pachama is a climate technology company that is democratizing access to nature-based carbon markets. Pachama's technology verifies the impact of carbon capture in the world's forests, allowing organizations and individuals to compensate their emissions with confidence by supporting reforestation and forest conservation projects. Pachama will help Amazon monitor and evaluate nature-based solutions, including investments made by the Right Now Climate Fund.
• Redwood Materials: Developing and commercializing a full process and suite of technologies for recycling end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and e-waste into high value metals and chemicals. Redwood Materials will help Amazon properly recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries and reuse their components. Redwood Materials can also help recycle the lithium batteries and e-waste from other parts of Amazon’s businesses.
• Rivian: As part of The Climate Pledge announcement in 2019, Amazon revealed it had purchased 100,000 EVs from Rivian, with plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030. The Climate Pledge Fund participated in Rivian’s latest investment round in July, and with proceeds from that investment, Rivian is further developing and integrating its connected electric platform with Amazon’s last-mile delivery network.
• Turntide Technologies: Turntide’s motors reduce energy use by 64% on average by optimizing efficiency and control without using expensive materials or rare earth minerals. Amazon is piloting Turntide’s motors in a number of its buildings and says the results so far have demonstrated significantly reduced electricity usage.
“The Climate Pledge Fund invests in visionary companies whose products and services can empower a low carbon economy,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Today, I am excited to announce that we are investing in a group of companies that are channeling their entrepreneurial energy into helping Amazon and other companies reach net zero by 2040 and keep the planet safer for future generations.”