For a company operating at Amazon’s scale, environmental sustainability is no longer only a question of reducing emissions. It also involves how the business uses land, water, energy, packaging, raw materials, and transportation—and how those activities affect ecosystems and biodiversity.
Amazon’s latest sustainability reporting increasingly treats nature and biodiversity as business issues, alongside climate, energy, waste, and supply-chain management. Its 2025 Sustainability Report covers biodiversity, water, sustainable sourcing, packaging, climate, and other areas of environmental impact.
A nature-positive approach means going beyond simply reducing environmental damage. It involves avoiding unnecessary harm, reducing impacts where they cannot be avoided, and supporting the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems.
What Does “Nature-Positive” Mean?
Nature-positive business practices focus on improving the condition of ecosystems and biodiversity while maintaining a viable business.
For an e-commerce and technology company such as Amazon, this can involve:
- Protecting habitats around business facilities
- Sourcing commodities with lower deforestation risk
- Restoring degraded land and ecosystems
- Reducing packaging waste
- Improving water efficiency
- Using renewable and carbon-free energy
- Electrifying delivery transportation
- Helping customers identify more sustainable products
Amazon describes its biodiversity approach as following a mitigation hierarchy that prioritizes avoiding and reducing habitat loss before considering restoration and other actions.
1. Protecting Biodiversity Through Business Decisions
Biodiversity includes plants, animals, microorganisms, and the ecosystems in which they exist. For a company with warehouses, delivery infrastructure, data centers, offices, and supply chains across many regions, decisions about where and how facilities are developed can affect local habitats.
Amazon reported that in 2025, 95 new building sites in Europe, North America, and India were evaluated for habitat conditions before development. It also reported more than 72,600 hectares of land protected or restored through its biodiversity and conservation efforts.
This demonstrates an important principle: environmental considerations can be incorporated into business decisions before construction begins rather than being addressed only afterward.
Why This Matters for Business
| Business Area | Nature-Related Consideration |
|---|---|
| New facilities | Assess habitat before development |
| Supply chain | Reduce environmental risks from sourcing |
| Agriculture | Encourage responsible commodity production |
| Water | Reduce consumption and improve replenishment |
| Packaging | Reduce material use and waste |
| Transportation | Transition toward lower-emission vehicles |
2. Responsible Sourcing Can Reduce Pressure on Forests
Supply chains are one of the most important connections between business and nature.
Products sold through an e-commerce marketplace can contain agricultural or natural commodities such as cocoa, coffee, tea, beef, paper, timber, and other materials.
If these materials are produced through practices associated with deforestation or habitat destruction, the environmental impact can extend far beyond a company’s own buildings.
Amazon reported that in 2025, 100% of Whole Foods Market and Amazon Private Brands beef, cocoa, coffee, and tea were sourced from regions classified as having low deforestation risk. It also reported achieving 33 of 35 goals and ambitions related to responsibly sourced commodities and animal welfare.
Responsible sourcing therefore becomes both an environmental and supply-chain management issue.
3. Packaging: Less Material, Less Waste
Packaging is an obvious environmental issue for e-commerce.
A single online order can involve:
Product → Packaging → Transportation → Delivery → Disposal
If packaging is unnecessarily large or uses excessive material, the environmental impact can increase.
Amazon says it has avoided 5.4 million metric tons of packaging materials in North America and Europe since 2015 through packaging changes. In 2025, 11% of its packages globally were shipped without additional Amazon packaging through its Ships in Product Packaging program.
Packaging innovation can include:
- Right-sized boxes
- Reduced packaging layers
- Paper-based alternatives
- Recyclable materials
- Ships-in-product-packaging programs
- Reduced use of single-use plastics
For an e-commerce business, reducing packaging can also have an operational benefit: lighter and smaller packages can require less material and potentially improve transportation efficiency.
4. Renewable Energy and the Growth of Technology
Amazon’s business increasingly depends on technology infrastructure, including data centers that support AWS and digital services.
This creates another connection between technology, finance, and nature: energy consumption.
Amazon reported that in 2025, electricity consumed by its global operations was matched with renewable energy sources for the third consecutive year. It also reported more than 700 carbon-free energy projects worldwide with capacity exceeding 40 GW.
The company continues to pursue its commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions across its global operations by 2040. Its 2025 report also states that overall carbon intensity had decreased 38% from its 2019 baseline, while absolute emissions increased 16% compared with 2024.
That distinction is important.
Carbon Intensity vs. Absolute Emissions
Carbon intensity measures emissions relative to a business activity or economic output.
Absolute emissions measure the total quantity of emissions.
A company can become more efficient per unit of activity while its total emissions still increase if the business grows faster than efficiency improves.
For investors and business analysts, looking at both measures provides a more complete picture.
5. Water Is Becoming a Business Issue
Water is another natural resource increasingly connected to technology infrastructure.
Data centers require cooling, while buildings and other operations may also consume water.
Amazon says AWS has a goal of becoming water positive by 2030, meaning it aims to return more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations. The company reported being 75% of the way toward this goal at the end of 2025.
Amazon also reports that its water replenishment efforts are expected to return more than 24 billion liters of water each year to local communities.
Water management can become especially important when businesses operate in regions already experiencing water stress.
6. Nature Can Also Be a Financial Consideration
Nature-positive business practices are not simply environmental expenses.
Businesses depend on natural systems for:
- Agricultural commodities
- Water
- Raw materials
- Stable supply chains
- Healthy communities
- Reliable infrastructure
- Long-term economic activity
Damage to ecosystems can create business risks through supply disruptions, higher resource costs, regulatory changes, reputational issues, and changing customer expectations.
This is why nature-related information is becoming increasingly relevant to investors and financial decision-makers.
For example, a company that relies heavily on agricultural commodities may need to understand how drought, soil degradation, deforestation, and biodiversity loss could affect future supply.
Amazon’s Nature-Positive Approach at a Glance
| Area | Amazon’s Reported Action |
|---|---|
| Biodiversity | 95 new sites assessed for habitat conditions in 2025 |
| Land | 72,600+ hectares protected or restored |
| Sourcing | Beef, cocoa, coffee and tea sourced from low-deforestation-risk regions for Whole Foods Market and Amazon Private Brands |
| Energy | 100% of electricity matched with renewable sources in 2025 |
| Water | AWS working toward water-positive operations by 2030 |
| Packaging | 5.4M metric tons of packaging avoided since 2015 in North America and Europe |
| Transportation | 2.4B packages delivered by EVs globally in 2025 |
| Climate | Net-zero carbon goal for global operations by 2040 |
These are Amazon-reported figures and commitments, rather than an independent assessment of whether Amazon as a whole is already “nature-positive.”
The Role of Technology
Technology can help businesses measure and manage environmental impacts.
Amazon’s 2025 report describes the use of AI and machine learning across areas such as fulfillment, energy management, and biodiversity assessment. For example, Amazon says an AI tool called BNG.AI was adopted in 2025 to help assess biodiversity value at potential development sites in the UK.
Technology can support nature-related decision-making through:
- AI-based environmental assessments
- Supply-chain tracking
- Energy monitoring
- Water-use monitoring
- Automated warehouse systems
- Route optimization
- Inventory forecasting
- Carbon and sustainability reporting
The important point is that technology should provide better information and more efficient operations, rather than being treated as a substitute for reducing environmental impacts.
Investing in Nature Restoration
Amazon also operates the $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which supports nature-based climate and community resilience projects in different countries.
In June 2026, Amazon announced a $1.5 million investment through the fund for a project in Soweto, Johannesburg, intended to restore degraded river landscapes, create jobs, and improve climate resilience.
Amazon has also supported conservation and restoration projects involving forests, wetlands, urban nature, and other ecosystems.
These investments illustrate another component of a nature-positive strategy: businesses can contribute to ecosystem restoration beyond their immediate operational footprint.