How Amazon tracks carbon intensity across its operations

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Amazon's investment in electric vehicles — like the ones shown here — is one of the ways it's reduced carbon emissions per unit shipped by 39% since 2019.

Sustainability

How Amazon tracks carbon intensity across its operations

Amazon is developing precise, sector-specific approaches to measuring decarbonization progress — starting with emissions per unit shipped.

By Kerry Constabile

July 1, 2026

3 min read

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At Amazon, we believe that as our strategy to reach net-zero by 2040 evolves, we need to continue to raise the bar on what and how we measure. Measuring carbon emissions across our entire business is complex, and the tools and methodologies available are continuously improving. Each year, we report on our carbon intensity, absolute emissions, and sustainability progress in our Sustainability Report , and we continue to adopt more-precise tools and methodologies to ensure our data is as meaningful and as representative of our decarbonization journey as possible. Carbon intensity — the amount of emissions per unit of activity or production — is one of the most important tools for tracking decarbonization progress. But not all activities are the same. Across industries, some of the most meaningful intensity metrics are sector specific, tied to the actual activity being decarbonized, across buildings, energy, transportation, and products and beyond. Examples of metrics used by companies include carbon dioxide equivalent per megawatt-hour for electricity, per square foot for building decarbonization, and per kilometer for transport. At Amazon, we apply the same principle: we are developing intensity metrics tailored to specific business activities, so we can measure what matters most.

Emissions per unit shipped

For Amazon's retail operations, we track carbon emissions per unit shipped. This metric matters because it directly reflects the efficiency of our delivery operations at scale. We’ve reduced emissions per unit shipped every year since 2019, resulting in a carbon intensity reduction of 39% at the end of 2025, relative to 2019. As we ship more packages, we're doing so with less carbon per unit, and our investments in carbon-free energy, smarter routing, lighter packaging, low-carbon fuels, alternative transportation methods (like rail versus road or air), and electric vehicles are all translating into real per-unit reductions. We also track carbon intensity at the regional and country level to understand geographic variation and target interventions accordingly. It's the clearest measure of whether we're decoupling delivery growth from emissions growth.

Why this is unique to Amazon

Amazon is more than a traditional logistics company: we're also a pharmacy, a grocery store, a cloud services company, a movie studio, a device manufacturer, a satellite business, and much more. As a result, our emissions span the entire value chain — from the manufacture of goods,...