Credit: Amazon / The Earthshot Prize
Under the partnership Amazon will support the roll out of Earthshot's finalist ideas and technologies across its worldwide operations
Amazon has joined global environmental prize and platform The Earthshot Prize as a founding partner, in a move that will support the delivery of the ideas and technologies developed by the prize's finalists.
The tech giant announced the multi-year collaboration this week, confirming it will back the rollout of ideas and technologies developed by The Earthshot Prize Finalists across its worldwide operations in support of Climate Pledge goal to reach net zero emissions by 2040.
Amazon said its global operations and supply chain would offer "significant opportunities" to deploy and scale the environmental technologies championed by The Earthshot Prize.
The partners said the move reflects a shared ambition to move beyond promoting clean tech innovation and focus on implementation and the real-world impact such technologies can have. Amazon said it will now work closely with The Earthshot Prize to match finalist innovations with areas within its operations and set specific goals in support of the collaboration.
This includes connecting finalists with Amazon suppliers and the more than 630 signatories to The Climate Pledge with the aim of encouraging the implementation of finalists' innovations and technologies. It will also showcase finalists' technologies at The Climate Pledge Hub at London Climate Action Week and New York Climate Week.
In addition, building on the $500m of investment that has already been secured by finalists, Amazon said the collaboration will facilitate introductions with potential investors and partners, including Climate Pledge signatories and Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, to explore opportunities to deploy the solutions in real-world applications.
Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019 to help encourage collaborative action to "tackle some of the planet's biggest climate change challenges". More than 630 companies worldwide, including more than 160 companies in the UK, have now signed The Climate Pledge, Amazon said.
"Addressing climate change challenges at scale requires urgency, collaboration and practical action," said Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer, Amazon. "Together we can integrate ideas across industries in ways that deliver for customers, communities and the planet."
Founded by Prince William in 2020, the Earthshot Prize aims to identify solutions that can tackle five 'Earthshot' challenges: to protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, and fix our climate.
Jason Knauf, chief executive at the Earthshot Prize, said partnering with Amazon marks "an important milestone" for the initiative.
"Our mission has always been to find and accelerate the solutions that can repair and regenerate our planet," he said. "Working with a global organisation like Amazon means we can put our finalists' ideas into action, in ways that allow people around the world to experience the benefit. Amazon joins a growing community of organisations working with The Earthshot Prize to turn breakthrough ideas into practical action."
Each year, five winners of The Earthshot Prize receive £1m to increase their impact and boost their global visibility. The Prize also offers its finalists tailored support, partnerships, and access to funding.
Finalists are connected with investors, corporates and policymakers who can accelerate their progress. Since being selected, the first 60 Earthshot Finalists have collectively raised more than $500m in grants and investment capital.
Amazon joins the Earthshot Prize's Global Alliance of Founding Partners alongside partners including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Breakthrough Energy, the Bezos Earth Fund, Temasek Trust, Standard Chartered, and Uber.
