The News: Amazon announced this last week at Climate Week NYC 2022 the addition of 40 new signers of The Climate Pledge, a global call to action to organizations to take action on climate change, pledging to work together to save the planet.
Amazon Climate Pledge Announces 40 New Signers
Analyst Take: Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019 in partnership with Global Optimism and we’ve covered its growing list of signers for the last couple of years. The Climate Pledge is important, as it is a pledge by organizations all over the world, and of all sizes and across myriad industries, to work together to ensure the health of the planet.
When I wrote about The Climate Pledge in March of this year, I was excited to share that the organization had grown 600%, moving from 200 signers in September of 2021 to 312 signers in March of 2022. That’s 375 companies, from 53 industries and 34 countries — and the list is growing at an exciting pace.
Signing The Climate Pledge is a big step. It requires a commitment to reaching net-zero carbon by 2040, a full ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. In addition to that pledge, organizations who make the commitment all play important roles in aiding in the development of and investment in low-carbon services and products. It’s a massive understatement to say that their commitment to The Climate Pledge goes a long way toward making significant climate change a reality.
My colleague and fellow analyst here at Futurum Research, Lauren Kirkpatrick, and I recently covered this news in an episode of our newest webcast, Good Equals Progress, focused on all things sustainability. Here’s a short video vignette of The Climate Pledge news.
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Good Equals Progress provides industry research and analysis on the topics of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). These columns are for educational purposes only and should not be considered in any way investment advice.
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The original version of this article was first published on Good Equals Progress.
Transcript:
Shelly Kramer: I’m going to kick that off talking about The Climate Pledge and the announcement by Amazon of an additional 40 signers added to The Climate Pledge.
So some backstory here is probably helpful. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019 with Global Optimism. The Climate Pledge is a call to organizations. It’s a call to action to organizations across the world to get involved and to take action on climate change and to pledge to work together to ensure the health of the planet. No small undertaking, right? When I wrote about The Climate Pledge in March of this year, it was exciting because what I covered then was the fact that The Climate Pledge had… The organization had experienced 600% growth moving from 200 signatories in September of 2021 to 312 in March of 2022. That’s awesome, right? But today, even more awesome, The Climate Pledge has more than 375 signatories, including some of the new ones. And by the way, there are many companies that you’ve never heard of, organizations of all different sizes. There’s no requirement in terms of sector or company size or anything like that. So don’t let that scare you off if you’re thinking about participating in The Climate Pledge.
However, I do like to highlight sometimes some of the big names in participants, and some of the newest signers include Impossible Foods, the Seattle Storm, the four time WNBA Champs, go Storm, the adventure gear brand Cotopaxi, American Family Insurance, Figma, who’s been in the news this week, HPE, Prologis, Ripple, the Seattle Aquarium, and many more. So here we are, 375 countries across 53 industries and 34 countries and growing. And I wanted to also share, every time I write or talk about The Climate Pledge, I’m just such a fan girl. But I do believe that it is such an important organization. What becoming a member, what becoming a signer of the pledge requires is a commitment by your organization to be net zero carbon by 2040. That’s 10 full years ahead of the Paris Agreement. So it is no small pledge. It is no small undertaking.
Organizations who make the commitment all play very important roles in the development of and the investment in low carbon services, products, and their commitments to The Climate Pledge. So The Climate Pledge represented a big vision and a bold statement. Global businesses are responsible for what’s happening, for what has happened to planet Earth, and they need to be accountable for helping to drive transformative action and affecting change, migrating away from some of the damaging things that we’re doing, protecting the environment from the impact of climate change. So really is an important undertaking. One of the things that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder said early on when The Climate Pledge organization was first founded was that if a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon, which delivers more than 10 billion items a year, can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, any company can. I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to argue there.
So this is incredibly important. Something coming out just this spring was in April of ’22, the UN released a report which found that increasing corporate and government greenhouse gas emissions across all major sectors globally, were pushing the planet toward a tipping point that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects. Folks, the reality of it is, I think we’re already seeing a lot of those. What’s happening in Pakistan, what’s happening… Tsunamis in Japan and flooding here in the United States and drought and wildfires. I mean, you name it all over the world, we’re experiencing the effects of climate change.
The last thing I’m going say about The Climate Pledge that I can’t talk about without mentioning this is that in addition to organizations signing and committing to The Climate Pledge, The Climate Pledge also has an investment fund, and they use that investment fund to invest in organizations who are working on solutions, climate change related solutions. And so that’s really cool as well. And we will hear about one of those companies here later on in the show. Lauren, I know you’re familiar with The Climate Pledge. What do you think?
Lauren Kirkpatrick: Yeah, I think it’s wonderful to see so many companies that have signed onto this agreement. And I think it’s great to see companies taking responsibility and not waiting until governments step up and saying that they have to take responsibility. With 375 that have signed on so far is really impressive. And like you said, it’s really great to see that there in so many different areas and industries from that WNBA team to technology sectors.
Shelly Kramer: Well, to the Seattle Aquarium. I mean there’s a Seattle focus right now. Obviously Amazon is headquartered in Seattle. That is not where all these organizations are. But I do always think it’s interesting to mention the little guys who are a part of this because all of us are in this together, right? And so I think sometimes when people hear about a commitment like this, a pledge like this, a partnership like this between Amazon and Global Optimism to develop The Climate Pledge, I think sometimes people think, “Oh, those are all big players. I’m too small to make a difference.” But the reality of it is we all make a difference. And so I think that is really, really exciting. And I think that Amazon is a giant, right? And so seeing what that company is able to do and committed to doing to affecting change, I think is super important.
Lauren Kirkpatrick: Absolutely.
Author Information
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
