US' Amazon expands partnership with circular-economy-based charity

The collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation comes as part of Amazon's broader commitment to sustainability, which includes the Climate Pledge, a co-founded initiative that aspires to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, Amazon said in a press release.

In alignment with these goals, the collaboration will concentrate on creating certifications for products with circular attributes. In this endeavour, Amazon and the foundation will be working with two certification organisations: the NSF, known for developing public health standards and environmental protection services, and International and Scientific Certification Systems Global (SCS Global).

The ultimate goal of these certifications is to equip customers with the necessary information to make more circular choices. The certifications are expected to motivate brands, original equipment manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and e-commerce platforms to design products in line with circular economy principles.

One of these certifications, the Recycled Content Standard for Electrical and Electronic Equipment, was launched in May 2023. The standard verifies the total percentage of recycled materials in these products against set minimum thresholds of achievement. Certified products must contain more than one recycled material input, thus advocating for the use of diverse recycled materials.

Certifications that comply with the criteria will qualify for inclusion in Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly Program. This programme helps customers identify more sustainable products by labelling them with sustainability certifications.

Moreover, the foundation’s Plastics Initiative is developing a vision to scale up returnable packaging systems, with Amazon and AWS Global Impact Computing Teams lending their support through future visualisation and analytical modelling, the release added.

“Circular economy initiatives are integral to us meeting our Climate Pledge goal, and as with many aspects of sustainability, industry standards and collaboration are also essential,” said Rich Loretto, director of circular economy at Amazon. “The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has done amazing research and work to create frameworks for us all to work toward. Their advice will be extremely valuable as we work on our own initiatives, and their network will help to ensure those initiatives can scale to have greater impact across the industry.”

“We are excited to start working with Amazon on a range of circular economy initiatives—the company’s influence, ability to innovate, and capacity to scale solutions means there is huge scope to drive real transformational change,” said Joe Murphy, executive lead for network at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “We have already started and are looking forward to supporting their circular economy journey with our long-term collaboration.”

This collaboration is set to begin with a workshop hosted by the US Department of Energy, focusing on transitioning to a circular economy for plastics. The workshop will serve as a platform for sharing ideas, opportunities, research, and more among over 100 academics, NGOs, other companies, and Climate Pledge signatories.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)