A joint investigation suggests Amazon isn't as involved with its solar farms in Spain as it presents itself to be, raising questions about the retail giant's eco-friendly promises.
What's happening?
The Investigative Reporting Project Italy teamed up with La Marea to examine Amazon's 45 solar projects in Spain, according to WorldCrunch, which published the report's results.
The investigation discovered some irregularities — namely, that Amazon doesn't own three renewable energy projects it says it does, with various media headlines also identifying the company as the developer. Instead, Amazon acts as an energy buyer, confirming that most of its investments in renewable energy are "largely made through power purchase agreements."
The company declined investigators' request for comment on why it portrays projects such as the Alcalá complex, Almochuel plant, and Mérida facility as its own and whether it has made it clear to the media that it doesn't own the photovoltaic plants.
Why is this important?
Amazon is taking action to reduce pollution and boost sustainability, including by adding electric vehicles to its fleet and swapping plastic bags for bio-based alternatives.
However, the joint report says that Amazon's PPA approach to solar amounts to greenwashing because each project is split into different sections to bypass regional filters.
Multiple specialists confirmed to investigators that this is a "common and legal practice if the authorizations for the different photovoltaic plants are requested using different companies, as is the case with all those mentioned," per WorldCrunch.
Nonetheless, Abel La Calle, a University of Almeria environmental law professor and the president of the New Culture of Water Foundation, believes Amazon is engaging in "a type of legal fraud," as described by the report, preventing an accurate assessment of its environmental impact.
What's being done about this?
In Spain, newly relaxed regulations have helped expedite the development of green energy projects, per WorldCrunch. And La Calle acknowledged that it is common in the Spanish renewable market for "opportunistic companies" to buy and sell projects to make a profit.
Ultimately, having more solar energy in the mix rather than dirty fuels — which release toxic, heat-trapping emissions — contributes to healthier air quality and supports Amazon's pollution-reduction goals. Perfection also shouldn't be the enemy of progress.
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Definitely 💯 Yet the Spain investigation underscores that transparent reporting is a crucial component in optimizing the effectiveness of policies in working toward a cleaner, cooler future.
This isn't the only time Amazon has come under scrutiny for allegedly obscuring the true impact of its projects or business-related operations.
In March, for example, consumers filed a class-action lawsuit against the retail giant alleging it had deceived them about certain Amazon Basics paper products, marketing them as eco-friendly while sourcing pulp from suppliers that contribute to deforestation.
As Amazon continues to expand its data center infrastructure, a former water sustainability manager at Amazon has also criticized the company's water offset approach as being unethical. (For its part, Amazon says it is working to boost water use efficiency, including by exploring alternative cooling methods for data center machinery.)
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