Amazon Fresh location becomes world’s first grocery store to achieve Zero Carbon Certification from the International Living Future Institute

A Seattle Amazon Fresh site got a Zero Carbon accreditation from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), marking a key step in Amazon’s Climate Pledge pledge. It was the first grocery store and Amazon’s first building to receive the accreditation. In order to validate Amazon’s carbon-reduction efforts, ILFI gave the certification in September and is currently assessing four additional Amazon locations.

The 35,000 square foot, sustainably constructed store will debut in 2022 on Aurora Avenue in North Seattle. A natural-refrigerant-based refrigeration system, an all-electric kitchen and hot water heating system, customer electric vehicle charging stations and low-carbon concrete flooring are just a few of the building’s numerous environmentally friendly features.

Customers might not even be aware that the floors they walk on have a lower carbon footprint, for example. Despite this, since the store opened, it has saved over 100 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) compared to an industry standard grocery store.

A globally applicable certification, ILFI’s Zero Carbon Certification, requires combustion-free systems, reductions in a building’s operating and embodied carbon impacts, and measurement of success through data. Its accreditation is a very stringent test for approving building decarbonisation initiatives, and in order to receive it, Amazon Fresh shop operations were scrutinised for a whole year.

The Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, three Amazon Go locations in the Los Angeles area, an Amazon Same-Day site in Sacramento, and the Seattle Amazon Fresh location are all on pace to obtain Zero Carbon Certification from ILFI.