Over 6,000 employees at multinational technology company Amazon have banded together to demand the company do better environmentally in an open letter to their employer.

The worker-driven collective action calls on the company to rethink how it addresses and contributes to a warming planet by developing a climate action plan to address its carbon footprint with firm targets. The number of employees supporting the movement makes it the largest employee-driven movement on climate change in the tech industry to date.

The letter states Amazon needs to make firm commitments to reduce its carbon footprint across its vast international operations, not just vague announcements about sustainability. They also request the company stop offering the custom cloud-computing services they provide to help the fossil fuel industry find and extract more oil and gas.

The letter also supports use of the financial stock workers receive as compensation to demand change in the organisation. As shareholders, the workers can file resolutions urging corporate changes that investors can vote on at annual meetings. 

In a unique move, the Amazon employees who signed the letter went the extra step of making their names public. In previous tech industry activist movements, such as the mass walk-out at Google over its handling of sexual harassment claims, most employees have remained anonymous.

 

Positive Action

• Is your business doing enough to reduce its carbon footprint? Check out our War on Waste Toolkit for Business for tips and tools that can help your organisation be more environmentally friendly.
• If you feel strongly about the need for more to be done about climate change, make your voice heard! Contact your employer and/or government representatives to ask for greater action.

 

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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.