Amazon
Ah, Jeff Bezos, so desperate to be our Climate King, despite his company illegally firing employees demanding climate justice and continuing to work with fossil fuel companies. Amazon has busted out a bunch of bullshit initiatives over the years for Earth Day. At the start of April 2022, the company put up a whole post featuring its various sustainability initiatives, ranging from the genuinely laudable (powering its operations with renewables) to the greenwash-y (putting a vague green label on products including… disposable makeup wipes?).
But this one really tickled my funny bone. You can now order your home robot Alexa to plant a tree, and she’ll chip in money (from your account, natch) to a charity to plant one tree, tapping into the favorite climate solution of big businesses and anti-climate-action politicians that helps them distract from the real decarbonizing work that needs to be done.
Sure, this is a company where workers reportedly weren’t allowed to leave a warehouse during dangerous weather. But hey, Alexa can help with the whole planting tree thing! Maybe it’ll make customers ignore the fact that Amazon’s carbon footprint rose 19% in 2020 and 15% the year before that.
