At the annual meeting on 26 May 2021, a majority of the shareholders voted against all 11 proposals – including one requesting a report on Amazon’s plastic packaging – as listed in the company’s proxy statement presented ahead of the meeting. Only around 35% of shareholders supported the proposal asking the company to reduce the amount of plastics used in its operations. As reported by Plasteurope.com, the retail giant’s board of directors was against the proposal (see Plasteurope.com of 18.05.2021).

The measure was supported by US activist group As You Sow (Berkeley, California; www.asyousow.org), and was introduced at the virtual event by Conrad MacKerron, senior VP, As You Sow. In the meeting, MacKerron highlighted Amazon’s substantial and growing use of plastic packaging: “Our proposal asks the company to report on how much of its plastic packaging is released to the environment to help investors assess its exposure to plastics-related risks, and to set goals for significant cuts to help manage that risk,” he said, pointing out that the retail giant has not disclosed the amount of plastic it uses, or committed to cuts in plastic use, unlike competing retailers Target and Walmart (see Plasteurope.com of 28.05.2021). “Researchers say companies need to cut their plastic use by one-third to be able to reduce ocean plastic pollution 80% by 2040.”

A 2020 report by marine environment protection organisation Oceana (www.oceana.org) said 2019 data showed that the retail giant generated nearly 211,000 t of plastic packaging waste and up to 11,000 t of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s freshwater and marine ecosystems.

This was Jeff Bezos’ last shareholder meeting as the CEO – Bezos is stepping stepping down to become executive chairman on 5 July 2021. The role of CEO will be taken over by Amazon’s senior VP, Andy Jassy.

At the virtual event, Bezos steered clear of any comments or mention of the plastic packaging proposal and instead focused on The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040 – “ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement” – and Shipment Zero, a commitment that 50% of all Amazon shipments will be net-zero carbon by 2030, and renewable energy programmes “that have put us on a path to powering our operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of our original target of 2030”.

“I’m proud of the work our teams are doing to combat climate change. The Climate Pledge calls on signatories to be net-zero by 2040, and we’re making huge progress. In Europe alone we’re investing in more than 2.5 GW in renewable energy capacity, enough to power more than 2m homes a year.”