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More than 600 employees have signed a petition, ahead of the Amazon shareholder meeting today, pressuring the company by 2030 to bring its pollution levels down to zero, predominantly border Amazon warehouses particularly in the communities of color. The petition had gathered 640 signatures, ask Amazon in heavily affected communities to prioritize zero-emissions technologies to live up to its statements about racial equity and close the racial equity gaps.
“As employees, we are alarmed that Amazon’s pollution is disproportionately concentrated in communities of color,” the petition reads. “Amazon must commit to zero emissions by 2030 and deploy zero-emissions technologies in communities most impacted by its pollution first. We want to be proud of where we work.”
The worker members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice started the petition and circulated it in response to the company rejecting a proposed shareholder resolution that made the company report in communities of color on how much pollution it emits. More than 7500 workers in 2019 threw their weight behind an ultimately unsuccessful shareholder proposal. It called upon CEO Jeff Bezos to create a comprehensive climate change plan for the organization.
Amazon factories and warehouses have increased in number around the U.S. in recent years. The working-class communities are predominantly made up of people of color. Millions of packages per day on average are shipped has, in turn, made those communities hotbeds of pollution. It is a kind of runoff from the diesel trucks and other modes of transportation the company uses to transport its product and ground zero for plastic waste.
Without informing the community Amazon, shows up about their encroachment. The company shows up with delivery trucks and warehouses that worsen the roads, the air Paola Dela Cruz-Perez, a youth organizer for the nonprofit East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said during Tuesday briefing held ahead of the planned shareholder meeting. Amazon shareholders rejected the shareholder resolution on pollution reporting and will still be expected to vote on a separate resolution that would ask Amazon to report how much of its plastic packaging ends up in the environment.
