This Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a global wave of protest is crashing against the shores of Amazon. From the United States and the United Kingdom to Turkey and beyond, over 20 countries are seeing Amazon workers walk out in a coordinated strike organized by the ‘Make Amazon Pay’ campaign. This isn’t just a labor dispute; it’s a full-scale rebellion against what employees see as Amazon’s broken promises on climate action and the company’s contribution to a culture of unsustainable overconsumption.
A newly released survey, conducted independently by the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), reveals a stark reality: the vast majority of Amazon employees believe senior leadership is deliberately misleading the public about the company’s environmental impact. Over 800 employees from Seattle headquarters and various global hubs participated in the survey, with a staggering 71% believing that sustainability isn’t a core metric for Amazon’s business decisions. This sentiment is particularly poignant given that Amazon adopted its ‘Climate Pledge’ in 2019, following a wave of employee walkouts. While the Pledge committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, the company’s annual emissions have since increased by a shocking 35%.
The AECJ points to several factors fueling employee outrage. The lack of concrete interim targets for emissions reduction, the prioritization of profit over planet, and the company’s backtracking on several green initiatives are all cited as key concerns. One particularly egregious example is the deletion of a blog post outlining the company’s plans to make half of its deliveries net-zero by 2030. Furthermore, the AECJ argues that Amazon’s carbon accounting is drastically underreported, excluding emissions from third-party sellers (which account for 60% of sales) and focusing solely on Amazon-branded products (a mere 1% of sales). This undercounting ultimately led to Amazon’s removal from the UN-backed Science Based Targets initiative in August 2023.
The survey also reveals deep unease among employees regarding Amazon’s support of fossil fuel companies through AI and other services. Over half of respondents expressed disapproval of this activity, which directly contradicts the company’s purported commitment to climate responsibility. This is further underscored by the finding that 89% of employees believe Amazon should adopt more transparent and comprehensive carbon emission accounting practices, similar to competitors like Target and Walmart.
Eliza Pan of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice frames the issue not merely as Amazon’s individual failure, but as a systemic problem. “This isn’t just about Amazon’s failures,” she says, “this is about Amazon setting the standards for how corporations across the world measure emissions and take responsibility for their pollution.” The sheer scale of Amazon’s environmental impact is staggering; the AECJ’s research estimates that Amazon’s annual emissions are equivalent to an individual taking a long-haul flight every day for 94,000 years. This underscores the crucial role of corporations in perpetuating overconsumption, a culture fueled by marketing strategies that encourage continuous purchasing, like the creation of Prime Day. Pan argues that solving this issue requires collective action, not just individual consumer choices. The solution, she insists, lies in workers organizing and demanding change from within their companies.
The survey also highlights the negative community impact of Amazon’s operations. Nearly one-third of employees wouldn’t feel comfortable with the opening of a new Amazon warehouse or delivery hub in their community due to concerns about air pollution. The AECJ points to the Inland Empire in Southern California, a region burdened with the worst ozone pollution in the US, as a prime example. This area, which handles 40% of Amazon’s global goods, experiences an average of 175 days of unhealthy air quality annually, highlighting the disproportionate impact on communities of color.
Pan calls on individuals to engage in collective action to reduce overconsumption. She encourages people to form and join sustainability-focused worker organizations within their own workplaces, and for Amazon employees, to actively participate in the ongoing organizing efforts. The message is clear: lasting change requires not just individual responsibility, but a coordinated effort to hold corporations like Amazon accountable for their environmental impact and the unsustainable practices that fuel their growth.
