Better Health for All
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Amazon demonstrates excellent data practices, with a Compliance unit overseeing privacy, a Notice of Privacy Practices for Amazon Pharmacy, and FAQs addressing data sharing and protection for health programs.
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AWS Healthcare also assists medical practices with data management and regulatory compliance.
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The company shows strong support for mental health, partnering with Talkspace in September to expand access to mental health services
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and offering anxiety treatment through its RxPass subscription.
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Amazon provides substantial support for the healthcare workforce, including an accelerator program launched in 2023 for startups addressing healthcare burnout
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,
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and AI tools rolled out in October to ease administrative burdens for One Medical providers.
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Additionally, Amazon offers basic health education through an FSA | HSA Learning Center.
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Fair Money & Economic Opportunity
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An Indian antitrust probe found Amazon violated competition laws by favoring specific sellers.
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India's Commerce Minister accused Amazon of predatory pricing practices, and the FTC along with 17 states sued Amazon for abusing its market power to inflate prices and overcharge sellers.
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Despite these allegations, Amazon provides lending and factoring services for SMEs in the US, and its Payment Services operate in the MENA region, where Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is identified as a cornerstone of financial inclusion.
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The company offers financial assistance, business education, and mentorship to Black-owned businesses through its Black Business Accelerator, providing a $500 credit upon enrollment.
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Amazon Business awarded over $250,000 in grants to 15 small businesses across the U.S.
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The European Accelerator trained over 130,000 individuals in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, with Amazon investing over €7 million in free e-learning content and events.
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Amazon also hosted a free virtual Small Business Summit on money management.
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Independent sellers on Amazon generated over $2.5 trillion in sales over the past 25 years, with over 55,000 generating more than $1 million in sales in 2024.
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These sellers averaged over $290,000 in annual sales in 2024, a 16% increase from 2023, and employ over 2 million people in the U.S., an 11% year-over-year increase, including in rural areas and small towns.
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However, the provided articles do not contain the specific quantitative data required by the rubric to score any of the KPIs.
Fair Pay & Worker Respect
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Most surveyed Amazon workers reported hourly wages between $16 and $20.
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This is further underscored by the CEO's 2022 statement that a $25 per hour minimum wage was 'unreasonable'.
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A significant portion of the workforce faces financial insecurity, with 60% of those taking unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion reporting food insecurity, 56% unable to pay all bills, and 48% experiencing housing insecurity.
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The company has accumulated seven substantiated labor-law or human-rights violations in the past three years. These include two OSHA fines in January 2023 for unsafe conditions and injury record-keeping,
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two Minnesota OSHA citations in October 2023 for ergonomic hazards and undisclosed productivity quotas,
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and identified breaches of supply chain standards in Saudi Arabia in 2023.
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Additionally, a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in June 2024 classified Flex drivers as employees,
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and an NLRB finding in February 2025 determined Amazon illegally enforced its Unpaid Time Off policy.
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Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing
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In the last three years, Amazon has been linked to three substantiated forced labor findings. In 2022, the company was connected to Chinese suppliers involved in forced labor practices with the Uyghur population.
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In 2023, investigations linked Amazon to five suppliers allegedly involved in forced labor in China's Xinjiang region.
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Also in 2023, Amazon found violations of its Supply Chain Standards at a third-party licensed temporary labor agency in Saudi Arabia, involving worker-paid recruitment fees and control of documents.
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By February 2024, Amazon reimbursed over 700 workers in Saudi Arabia more than $1.9 million in recruitment fees and related costs.
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Honest & Fair Business
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Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle a U.S. lawsuit regarding deceptive Prime subscription practices, which includes $1 billion in civil penalties and $1.5 billion in consumer reimbursements.
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This lawsuit concerns practices between mid-2019 and mid-2025.
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In June 2023, the company paid $25 million for children's privacy violations
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and an additional $5.8 million for Ring privacy issues.
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Furthermore, in June 2024, Amazon was fined $5.9 million for 59,017 violations of California's Warehouse Quotas law,
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and in 2023, it paid over $1.9 million to settle labor exploitation claims.
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Regarding its anti-corruption policy, Amazon's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics prohibits bribery, including illegal payments to government officials,
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and requires employees to contact the Legal Department for guidance when conducting business with government officials.
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The company's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics also includes reporting guidelines for violations,
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specifies reporting to an independent third party,
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and states that Amazon will not allow retaliation against employees reporting misconduct in good faith.
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Kind to Animals
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Amazon Fresh in North America, Amazon Private Brands in North America and Europe, and Whole Foods Market source 100% cage-free, free-range, or barn-raised shell and liquid eggs.
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Whole Foods Market also sources 100% crate-free fresh pork in the U.S. and Canada.
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However, only 30% of Amazon Fresh private label fresh pork was sourced from crate-free systems as of Q3 2024, with a goal to reach 100% by the end of 2027.
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For animal agriculture ethics, Amazon Fresh requires suppliers of private brand chickens to meet National Chicken Council guidelines, including a maximum stocking density of 7.0 lbs./sq. foot and basic enrichment.
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Suppliers for pork, dairy, and beef products must follow relevant industry programs.
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Amazon Fresh does not support the routine use of antibiotics as prophylactics or growth promoters.
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Whole Foods Market sources all fresh beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb to its Animal Welfare Standards.
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For wildlife conservation, Amazon's Right Now Climate Fund has disbursed $67.4 million over the past five years, protecting or restoring over 49,000 hectares of land and safeguarding more than 1,900 species, including specific endangered species in Australia, India, and Poland.
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No War, No Weapons
-40
Amazon's AWS division has secured several contracts with the U.S. military, including a $22 million contract with the U.S. Army (2024-2029).
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AWS also has a share of the up to $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with the Department of Defense (until 2028).
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AWS also has a $723.9 million contract with the U.S. Navy (five-year from 2022).
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AWS also engaged in Project Maven with approximately $20 million in contracts for AI-driven military drone surveillance (2019-2020).
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AWS also provides cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, including for mass surveillance and confirming aerial assassination strikes.
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These defense-adjacent services represent a very small percentage of Amazon's total revenue, approximately 0.082% of its $638 billion total revenue in 2024.
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The company's AI principles are described as vague and potentially ineffective regarding military applications, and there is no public disclosure of ethical 'red lines' for the permissible use of its technology in military contexts.
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Amazon-backed Anthropic is in a standoff with the Pentagon over safeguards for its dual-use AI, which could be used for autonomous weapons or spying.
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Concerns have been raised about the lack of transparency regarding Amazon's involvement in intelligence and surveillance contracts, particularly its opaque involvement in military surveillance for the Israeli military.
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While AWS achieves ISO/IEC 42001:2023 Artificial Intelligence Management System accredited certification, its general AI principles lack specific details on military applications.
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In contrast, Amazon conducts annual human rights due diligence on conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo region, in accordance with OECD guidance, and publicly reports on these efforts.
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For 2023, no suppliers were identified as benefiting armed groups in the DRC region through their supply chain.
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Planet-Friendly Business
-30
Amazon's total carbon emissions increased to 68.25 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent in 2024, representing a 6% increase in absolute emissions for the year.
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Its Scope 1 emissions have risen by 162% since 2019.
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The company matched 100% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy sources in both 2023 and 2024.
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Amazon achieved an 85% landfill diversion rate in 2024.
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The company has set a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its global operations by 2040, a commitment made through The Climate Pledge, which included a goal to cut shipping emissions by 50%.
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Respect for Cultures & Communities
50
Amazon engaged with more than 500 certified U.S. Tier 1 diverse suppliers in 2023.
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, with spending increasing to $9.7 billion in 2024.
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The company signed its first memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in 2023
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and launched an online storefront supporting Indigenous communities in Canada.
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Amazon committed $1 million to the Centre for Wildlife Studies to support communities and conservation efforts in the Western Ghats.
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The company invested $2.2 billion to create or preserve over 21,000 affordable homes
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, with 43% of these projects led by developers of color.
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In 2024, 4.3 billion liters of water were returned to communities from replenishment projects.
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Amazon distributed over $32 million in AWS cloud computing credits to organizations promoting health equity.
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Human rights saliency assessments were conducted for Amazon Private Brands and Whole Foods Market
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, and an online training on human rights and forced labor awareness is available to employees.
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Safe & Smart Tech
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Amazon experienced a data breach in 2024, linked to a May 2023 third-party vendor flaw, affecting 2.8 million records
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,
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. The company stated the security vulnerability responsible for the breach had been fixed
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. France's CNIL fined Amazon France Logistique €32 million in January 2024 for intrusive employee monitoring, violating GDPR by tracking productivity with handheld scanners
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. Regarding AI ethics, Amazon Web Services (AWS) achieved ISO/IEC 42001:2023 accredited certification for its AI services, including Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q Business, being the first major cloud provider to do so
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. AWS also holds numerous reissued certifications as of November 2023, including ISO 9001:2015, 27001:2022, 27017:2015, 27018:2019, 27701:2019, 20000-1:2018, 22301:2019, and Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) STAR Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) v4.0, with many services added to scope
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. Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) achieved FIPS 140-3 Level 1 validation for its cryptographic modules
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. Amazon engages with industry partners, governments, and regulators through organizations like the Frontier Model Forum, Partnership on AI, US Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute, and C2PA Steering Committee
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. Past issues include bias in an AI recruitment tool
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and racial and gender biases in Rekognition technology in 2018
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Zero Waste & Sustainable Products
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Amazon achieved an 83% overall waste diversion rate in 2024
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, with 85% of internal operational waste diverted from landfills.
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The company demonstrates strong packaging sustainability, with 100% of delivery packaging in Europe and India, and 99.5% in Japan, being household recyclable as of 2023.
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In North America, 56% of fulfillment centers did not ship plastic delivery packaging in 2024
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, and 99.7% of mixed-material mailers in the U.S. and Canada were replaced with recyclable paper alternatives.
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Globally, Amazon reduced single-use plastic packaging by 16.4% in 2024
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, and North American shipments containing single-use plastic packaging dropped by 28 percentage points from 65% in 2023 to 37% in 2024.
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The company eliminated plastic air pillows globally by October 2024
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, avoiding 15 billion plastic air pillows and 134 million plastic delivery bags.
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Since 2015, Amazon has avoided 4.2 million metric tons of packaging.
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Circular design principles are embedded, with AWS enhancing its strategy to use 30% recycled or bio-based plastics in server rack components
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and sourcing 16% of spare parts from its own reuse inventory.
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Amazon collaborates with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
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and introduced the Compact by Design initiative.
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Waste reduction initiatives include avoiding 85 million disposable pallets in 2024 using reusable GoCarts
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, donating 81 million meals globally
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, and reducing operational product damage by 29%.
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Amazon has a public commitment to reduce food waste by 50% across its U.S. and Europe operations by 2030.
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