Amazon on October 28 announced the launch of Climate Pledge Friendly in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK as part of its commitment to be net carbon neutral by 2040. With this, Amazon aims to make it easy for customers to discover and shop for more sustainable products.
Amazon, which has a massive transportation and data centre footprint, has faced protests from environmental activists and pressure from its employees to take action on climate change.
"Customers will now see the Climate Pledge Friendly badge on more than 40,000 products in Europe, which signifies that the products have one or more of 19 different sustainability certifications that help preserve the natural world, such as reducing the carbon footprint of shipments to customers," the e-commerce firm said in a statement.
Climate Pledge Friendly was first launched in the US in September and is now being rolled out in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Products from various categories like beauty, fashion, grocery, household, office and electronics for consumers and businesses will be marked under the Climate Pledge Friendly category, Amazon said.
Climate Pledge Friendly products will have additional sustainability information on the product page and will be featured in a dedicated section of the Amazon store.
"Climate Pledge Friendly is a simple way for our customers to discover more sustainable products that help preserve the natural world,” said Doug Gurr, Amazon UK Country Manager.
As part of the Climate Pledge Friendly initiative, Amazon also unveiled 'Compact by Design' in Europe - a new externally-validated certification created by Amazon to identify products that have a more efficient design.
"With 18 external certification programmes and our own new Compact by Design certification, we are incentivising selling partners to create sustainable products that help protect the planet for future generations," he added.
Amazon said that the Climate Pledge Friendly initiative will support its commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net-zero carbon by 2040.
"The company has already committed to reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 and ordered more than 1,800 branded electric vehicles from Mercedes-Benz to make deliveries to customers in Europe," it said.
Earlier this year, Amazon had said it will launch a $2 billion venture capital fund that will focus on technology investments to reduce the impact of climate change and support sustainable development.
"The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies across industries such as transportation and logistics, energy, storage and utilisation, manufacturing and materials, and food and agriculture," the e-commerce giant had said in June.
In February, CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos committed about $10 billion to fund scientists, activists, non-profits and other groups fighting to protect the environment.
Amazon has been accused of creating vast amounts of waste from the packaging it uses for doorstep deliveries and for greenhouse gas emissions from its huge fleet of vehicles.
The company has also been denounced over its carbon footprint because of the high energy consumption of its server farms for its lucrative cloud computing activities.
