Amazon Announces First Recipients of Investments from $2 Billion Climate Pledge Fund
September 17 2020 - 8:18AM
Business Wire
CarbonCure Technologies, Pachama, Redwood
Materials, Rivian, and Turntide Technologies receive investments to
develop decarbonizing technologies and services that support
Amazon’s commitment to meeting The Climate Pledge
The Climate Pledge is a commitment co-founded
by Amazon and Global Optimism to meet the goals of the Paris
Agreement 10 years early and achieve net-zero carbon by 2040
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the first recipients of
investments from The Climate Pledge Fund: CarbonCure Technologies,
Pachama, Redwood Materials, Rivian, and Turntide Technologies. The
Climate Pledge Fund is a dedicated $2 billion venture investment
program backing sustainable technologies and services that will
help Amazon and other companies to meet The Climate Pledge—a
commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040.
“The Climate Pledge Fund invests in visionary companies whose
products and services can empower a low carbon economy,” said Jeff
Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Today, I am excited to announce
that we are investing in a group of companies that are channeling
their entrepreneurial energy into helping Amazon and other
companies reach net zero by 2040 and keep the planet safer for
future generations.”
The Climate Pledge Fund is investing in companies in multiple
industries, including transportation and logistics, energy
generation, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials,
circular economy, and food and agriculture. Over time, Amazon will
also look for opportunities to involve other Climate Pledge
signatories in this venture investment program and help them find
solutions to help them reach net zero carbon by 2040.
“The Climate Pledge Fund is another important example of how the
collaborative effort of The Climate Pledge can accelerate the
transition to a net zero world. These investments will scale new
technologies, helping these organizations speed up the pace at
which operational emissions can be reduced,” said Christiana
Figueres, the UN’s former climate change chief and founding partner
of Global Optimism. “This is how a whole-economy approach to
tackling the climate crisis looks. Together these companies
demonstrate that there are endless possibilities in the clean,
healthy recovery we must create together.”
The first five companies that the Climate Pledge Fund is
investing in are:
- CarbonCure Technologies: Has commercialized a portfolio
of carbon removal technologies that consume carbon dioxide (CO2) in
concrete during production, permanently sequestering CO2 and
enabling the reduction of cement content in mixes without impacting
concrete performance. Amazon is working to lower the embodied
carbon footprint of its buildings by using CarbonCure concrete in
many of its new buildings, including HQ2 in Virginia.
- Pachama: Pachama is a climate technology company that is
democratizing access to nature-based carbon markets. Pachama's
technology verifies the impact of carbon capture in the world's
forests, allowing organizations and individuals to compensate their
emissions with confidence by supporting reforestation and forest
conservation projects. Pachama will help Amazon monitor and
evaluate nature-based solutions, including investments made by the
Right Now Climate Fund.
- Redwood Materials: Developing and commercializing a full
process and suite of technologies for recycling end-of-life
Lithium-ion batteries and e-waste into high value metals and
chemicals. With Amazon’s firm commitment to electric delivery and
electrification infrastructure, Redwood Materials will help Amazon
properly recycle Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries and reuse their
components. Redwood Materials can also help recycle the lithium
batteries and e-waste from other parts of Amazon’s businesses.
- Rivian: As part of The Climate Pledge announcement in
2019, Amazon revealed it had purchased 100,000 EVs from Rivian,
with plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road
as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030. The
Climate Pledge Fund participated in Rivian’s latest investment
round in July, and with proceeds from that investment, Rivian is
further developing and integrating its connected electric platform
with Amazon’s last mile delivery network.
- Turntide Technologies: Turntide’s motors reduce energy
use by 64% on average by optimizing efficiency and control without
using expensive materials or rare earth minerals. Amazon is
piloting Turntide’s motors in a number of its buildings and the
results so far have demonstrated significantly reduced electricity
usage.
“This investment is a great endorsement of CarbonCure as the
go-to Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) solution for the growing tech
construction space and the overall shift towards low embodied
carbon construction materials,” said Robert Niven, CarbonCure
Technologies founder and CEO. “This investment in CDR signals a
broader change for public and private infrastructure projects as
industries and governments turn their focus toward the reduction of
embodied carbon.”
“We are incredibly excited to be one of the first recipients of
The Climate Pledge Fund as we join forces to protect and restore
Planet Earth and achieve a net zero carbon economy,” said Diego
Saez-Gil, Pachama founder and CEO. “We started this company two
years ago with the mission of unlocking the full potential that
forests and natural ecosystems have to remove carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere, a key activity to solve climate change. As the
climate crisis becomes a more urgent reality every day, we are
thrilled to be able to accelerate our work with the support of
Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund."
“To fight climate change, we need to solve the impact products
have on the environment. We’re honored to be part of the Amazon’s
Climate Pledge Fund and to build the closed-loop supply chain that
will recycle batteries, electronics and other end of life products
for Amazon,” said JB Straubel, Redwood Materials Co-founder and
CEO.
“Amazon’s commitment to addressing climate change is perfectly
aligned with Rivian's mission. We are proud to be part of The
Climate Pledge Fund,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian founder and CEO.
“Electric motors consume half the world’s electricity, making
them one of the largest contributors to climate change,” said Ryan
Morris, Turntide Technologies Chairman and CEO. “Today, 98% of
motors are based on an 1888 design by Nikola Tesla but have been
difficult to improve without resorting to expensive materials,
including rare earth minerals. Turntide's mission is to replace the
world’s electric motors with optimal efficiency motor systems, an
essential step to help companies decrease their carbon footprint
and reach their goal of net zero carbon. We share Amazon's
information technology DNA and are excited to have them as partners
in tackling climate change."
To learn more about the Climate Pledge Fund, please visit:
https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/about/climate-pledge-fund.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather
than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to
operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews,
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by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets,
Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and
services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit
www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
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