Giving Compass' Take:

• Amazon has a goal of reducing its carbon footprint, by eventually making all shipments "net-zero carbon" by 2030. 

• How will stakeholders hold Amazon accountable for achieving this goal? 

• Read about other companies that are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. 

As the largest online retailer in the U.S.–and the second largest in the world, after Alibaba–Amazon’s enormous web of global shipping gives it a massive carbon footprint. But the company now plans to eventually make all shipments “net zero carbon,” or carbon neutral, and is aiming for half of its shipments to meet that goal by 2030. The company also plans to share its total carbon footprint later this year.

In part, the company explains in a blog post, it sees “Shipment Zero” as feasible because transportation technology is changing. “I firmly believe that we’re at the beginning of a revolution or major transformation of the overall transportation and logistics industry,” says John Hodges, a managing director at BSR, a nonprofit that works with businesses to help them become more sustainable. (Amazon is a member of BSR’s Future of Fuels initiative, one collaboration that looks at the future of commercial road freight.)

Alternative jet fuels, including fuel made from emissions, are becoming more feasible to help improve the footprint of aviation. Presumably, Amazon could also make changes in services like Prime so fewer people choose to get rush delivery–racking up emissions–when they don’t actually need something right away.

That doesn’t mean that in a few years your order from Amazon will arrive via electric cargo ships, electric trucks, and zero-emissions planes; the transition is likely to happen unevenly in different modes, and take time. It’s not clear how much of Amazon’s shipping footprint can be directly reduced to meet its 2030 goal, and how much the company will need to rely on carbon offsets, such as planting trees, to reach net zero carbon.

Read the full article about Amazon's plans for a net-zero carbon footprint by Adele Peters at Fast Company