Amazon’s relatively new same-day fulfillment center near Sacramento International Airport is the first logistics site in North America to receive zero-carbon certification from the International Living Future Institute in Seattle.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) opened the center in August 2022 in the Metro Air Park development with an eye toward getting this certification.
“At Amazon, we are laser focused on reaching our climate pledge commitment by 2040, and our buildings are a big piece of this puzzle,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon chief sustainability officer, in a company blog. "This facility is not only delivering for our customers within hours of their order, but it was also built to reduce its environmental impact. We are challenging ourselves to think big and design Amazon’s buildings in a way that helps lead the industry toward decarbonization."
The same-day center stores thousands of items of inventory that are picked and packed for delivery within hours of ordering from the company’s website.
The building opened in the summer of 2022, and is still awaiting a rooftop solar array that will supply about 80% of its power needs, with the rest of its electricity sustainably sourced, an Amazon spokesperson said. All current power since its opening have been sourced from off-site renewable energy projects.
The 148,800-square-foot building, called SCA5, is at the corner of Serna Drive and Metro Air Parkway. It is located between two massive Amazon fulfillment center warehouses, the 855,000-square-foot SMF1 at 4900 West Elkhorn Blvd., which opened seven years ago, and the 1 million-square-foot SMF6 at 4930 Allbaugh Drive, which opened three years ago.
Amazon employs hundreds of full-time and part-time employees at this site, a spokesperson said. She said the company cannot discuss specific costs associated with this building or how much more it may have cost than traditional construction.
“As we are beginning to implement some of the sustainability improvements made at SCA5 more broadly, other sites across our operations will start to include attributes such as low-carbon concrete, all-electric HVAC, rooftop solar installations and energy efficiency upgrades such as LED lighting and high-efficiency material handling equipment,” she said. “Recognizing that building emissions cannot currently be completely eliminated, the certification also requires carbon neutralization — additional finance for climate solutions outside of the building through the voluntary carbon market."
To get the certification, the building had to meet energy efficiency performance targets over 12 consecutive months. The building is fully electric. It uses smart irrigation systems that sense rain to reduce landscape watering. It is also highly insulated to reduce heating and cooling load. Parking areas were made using recycled asphalt.
In 2019, Amazon agreed to its climate pledge mandating that it will be net-zero carbon across all its operations by 2040. Amazon has multiple other locations in the Sacramento region
As part of its climate pledge, Amazon has invested in Sacramento company Infinium, and its development of ultra-low carbon electrofuels for transportation. Amazon has also committed to buying domestically sourced electrofuels for use in California.
