Love em’ or hate em’, Amazon and it’s business operations have a massive impact on the environment. Environmentalists will lament the company for taking too long to produce a comprehensive environmental plan to clean up its operations, but now with its recent Climate Pledge, the company has set a goal to make its entire operations carbon neutral by 2040 and its shipping operations carbon neutral by 2030.
To get there, Amazon made its first big investment in cleantech by partnering with electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. As New Atlas reports, Amazon put in an order for 100,000 electric vans that will cart its goods to delivery locations. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos hopes an electric delivery fleet will significantly reduce the company’s emissions, at least in this area of the business.
Rivian claims its vans will reportedly be able to drive 400 miles on a single charge and become autonomous eventually. The first electric Amazon vans are set to hit the road by 2021, with all 100,000 of the fleet deployed by 2030.