SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep. 17, 2020– 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.
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