Oceana calls on Amazon to do better on plastics

Oceana, an El Segundo, California-based group advocating for ocean conservation, is calling on Amazon shareholders to protect oceans by supporting a resolution asking the company to reduce its growing plastic packaging footprint.

Shareholders will be asked to vote on the resolution for the third year in a row at Amazon’s annual meeting May 24. Support for the proposal increased last year by more than 10 percentage points from the previous year, securing 48.9 percent of the vote.

Amazon’s plastic packaging waste grew by 52.5 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to recent reports from Oceana.

Oceana is asking the Seattle-based company’s leading shareholders, including former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, to support the resolution in May. Bezos owns about 10 percent of the company and has an outsized impact on the outcome of the vote. Oceana also is calling on institutional investors—such as Vanguard, Blackrock and Fidelity—to support the resolution.

Amazon took a step toward greater transparency in December 2022 when the company disclosed the amount of plastic packaging it uses for orders sent through Amazon’s fulfillment centers. However, this figure did not include packaging used for orders sent through third-party sellers, Oceana says. The company has yet to disclose its total plastic packaging footprint and commit to regular disclosures going forward, which is the best way for shareholders to evaluate the company’s progress toward reducing its use of plastic packaging. Amazon has eliminated plastic bags, plastic air pillows and bubble wrap in India, Europe, Australia and Japan, but equivalent action on the issue has been missing in the company’s largest market—the United States.

Voting in favor of the resolution is in line with the United Nations Finance Initiative’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which includes supporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. Several of the institutional investors owning Amazon shares are signatories to the PRI and have pledged to seek disclosure on ESG issues by the companies in which they invest. Despite this pledge, at least 26 PRI signatories voted against the resolution last year that asked Amazon to disclose its plastic packaging footprint.

Institutional investors are asked to declare their voting intention for the Amazon shareholder resolution on plastic packaging through the PRI’s collaboration platform.

“This year’s resolution is another opportunity to end Amazon’s growing tsunami of plastic pollution. Nearly 49 percent of shareholder votes spoke up for the oceans last year,” Oceana Senior Vice President Matt Littlejohn says. “We can’t stop now. It’s clear that investors need to push the company to take action on disclosing and reducing its global plastic packaging footprint. We urge all investors to rally against plastic pollution. Together we can protect the oceans and our planet from Amazon’s devastating impacts.”

Walmart and Target report annually on their plastic packaging use as signatories to the Global Commitment, a pledge to work toward a circular economy for plastics led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UN Environment Programme. In 2023, companies will also be asked to disclose plastics for the first time through the CDP’s water security questionnaire. The CDP is a nonprofit organization with North American offices in New York City that works to encourage accountability and transparency on environmental impact.