Amazon.com facing climate change resolution at AGM

Online retailing giant Amazon.com is facing a call from shareholders to report on the impact of climate change.

A motion requesting a report on how the company is assessing the impact of climate change and its plans to disclose this assessment has been tabled by Calvert Asset Management for Amazon’s shareholder meeting in Seattle on June 6.

Calvert is calling for the report to be published within six months of the meeting but the company is advising shareholders to vote against the proposal.

In its resolution, Calvert draws attention to the fact that investors increasingly “believe that there is an intersection between climate change and corporate financial performance” – and that Amazon is one ofthe largest global firms that doesn’t respond to the investor-led Carbon Disclosure Project survey.

Calvert is also critical of Amazon’s lack of disclosure of the environmental footprint of its bestselling Kindle ebook, where the firm lags peer companies like Apple.

“We are aware of and are focused on the potential impacts of climate change, but we do not believe that preparing an ad hoc climate change report is an efficient use of time and resources,” Amazon says. It reckons e-commerce is “inherently more environmentally friendly” than traditional retailing. It also states it has undertaken a variety of green initiatives such as environmentally-friendly packaging. Amazon’s proxy is here