- 6/25/2025
In this inspiring conversation, Abhinav Singh, Vice President of India & Australia Operations at Amazon, shares the company’s evolving approach to sustainability in India.
From reviving polluted water bodies and rivers across Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, to engaging local communities in water conservation, Amazon is working to leave the planet a better place for future generations.
In this candid conversation, Sudipto Dey, Editor, Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs, sits down with Abhinav Singh to talk about Amazon’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
Abhinav shares how Amazon is cutting down on packaging waste and powering its fulfilment centres through rooftop solar and large-scale renewable energy.
But it’s more than just corporate responsibility—it’s about creating a better, more sustainable future for the next generation.
👉 Tune in now to learn how sustainability, innovation, and community come together at Amazon.
About Planet, People, Profit:
Welcome to Planet, People, Profit, Outlook Business's new podcast series, where sustainability meets action. As the name suggests, this podcast explores the intricate relationship between the planet, people, and the pursuit of profit. Through this series, we delve into critical discussions, uncovering pressing environmental and social issues that often get overshadowed. Join us as we shine a light on the challenges and solutions shaping a more sustainable future.
From reviving polluted water bodies and rivers across Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, to engaging local communities in water conservation, Amazon is working to leave the planet a better place for future generations.
In this candid conversation, Sudipto Dey, Editor, Sustainability & Regulatory Affairs, sits down with Abhinav Singh to talk about Amazon’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
Abhinav shares how Amazon is cutting down on packaging waste and powering its fulfilment centres through rooftop solar and large-scale renewable energy.
But it’s more than just corporate responsibility—it’s about creating a better, more sustainable future for the next generation.
👉 Tune in now to learn how sustainability, innovation, and community come together at Amazon.
About Planet, People, Profit:
Welcome to Planet, People, Profit, Outlook Business's new podcast series, where sustainability meets action. As the name suggests, this podcast explores the intricate relationship between the planet, people, and the pursuit of profit. Through this series, we delve into critical discussions, uncovering pressing environmental and social issues that often get overshadowed. Join us as we shine a light on the challenges and solutions shaping a more sustainable future.
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NewsTranscript
00:00There were lessons that Amazon taught you with the MBA school did not.
00:03I think Amazon taught me a lot more than the MBA school did.
00:07In 2024, December, we took a bold goal to be returning back more water
00:12than what we consume in our direct operations in India by 2027.
00:17In Delhi, upstream of the Yamuna, we're going to give back 400 million litres of water,
00:23this time with hastened regeneration.
00:25We are setting up machines and spending capital to set up machines
00:29where people can produce sanitary napkins,
00:32you know, retail them at half the price of what is available in the market.
00:36So these are women entrepreneurs who are making sanitary napkins,
00:40making them available to hundreds and thousands of women.
00:43Right in the heart of Thane, the mangrove is home to hundreds and thousands of pink flamingos
00:49and their natural habitat is threatened by the plastic waste that flows into that creek.
00:55It comes from the various drains from Mumbai.
00:59So in one of those drains, we are working to fish out 150 tons of plastic.
01:04And this will then ensure not only the current generation of flamingos,
01:08but their future generations are also protected.
01:11Welcome to your new episode of Planet People Profit.
01:28I am your host, Sudipto Day.
01:30Amazon has been one of the influential powers shaping the global e-commerce economy.
01:35And with those powers comes responsibility towards the environment and adoption of sustainable business practices.
01:43We catch up with Abhinav to understand Amazon India's sustainability journey
01:48and whether India could be a lab for developing sustainable business solutions at scale.
01:55Abhinav, welcome to the show.
01:56Thank you so much.
01:58It's always a pleasure to meet you.
02:00Abhinav, your journey from a seaman to a startup team in Amazon, you know,
02:07is itself a fascinating story.
02:09Would you like to take us through, you know,
02:11how did you sort of, from a person who has, you know, sailed high seas
02:17and landed up in Amazon doing a startup, almost a startup, I would say, you know, in Amazon, in India?
02:25Absolutely.
02:26So, thank you so much for the question.
02:29I started my life sailing very young, right after school, like most seaparers do.
02:37And it was a great fulfilling career of over 10 years.
02:41I finally commanded an LNG ship, and I also worked in freight and commodity risk assurance,
02:48both for a company called Shell.
02:50Post that, I decided I wanted to come back to India.
02:55I was working in London at the time, and I wanted to, you know, be a part of the India growth story.
03:00I was deeply passionate about being in India, and I went to the Indian School of Business.
03:05At the Indian School of Business, they used to do case-based teaching.
03:09They still do.
03:11And one of the cases we read was on Amazon, and I was fascinated by the leadership principles.
03:16I was fascinated by the way Amazon thought about its business.
03:22And as luck would have it, Amazon came to campus that year,
03:27and that was the year that we were about to launch in India.
03:31So, like you said, I was one of the first six hires in Amazon operations in India.
03:36And from there on, it's been an incredible journey.
03:39I say this to people at Amazon and outside, that probably the only company in the world
03:45where you take someone who's come from the sea and trust them to run product and technology
03:51at some point in time, and then later scaled operations,
03:55because you believe in their ability to solve problems from a first principles perspective.
04:00You see that they have the right mindset of focusing on customer outcomes and solving problems,
04:06and that's what it's been.
04:08So, it's been a very rewarding journey for me personally.
04:13But what I'm very proud of is the opportunity that I've had to help transform lives and livelihoods in India,
04:20and in many ways shape the way India buys and sells.
04:24And I say this with all humility, that today we service every single postcode in the country.
04:30We reach the kind of selection and the speed with which we reach the entire country
04:36is certainly something to be proud about.
04:38And at the same time, be humble about that there's a lot more to be done.
04:41You know, coming to the corporate sector, so were there any sort of surprises, shocks,
04:47and how did you navigate those challenges?
04:51There were no surprises or shocks because Amazon always has been a very entrepreneurial company
04:58where you're focusing on solving customer outcomes.
05:02But I would be lying if I said that it wasn't like drinking through a firehose initially
05:08because, you know, I came from, you know,
05:12many years I'd see your brushwood technology is actually the physical technology of running a ship.
05:17Yeah.
05:17And from a software perspective, you're probably just using email.
05:21And from there to come into a technology company, I had to spend time learning,
05:26but I had some very amazing managers and mentors.
05:29I put in some deliberate effort to get closer to technology and learn from it.
05:36What really helped me was a frontline obsession that truly understanding
05:41what it is that we are building for the customer and the delivery associate,
05:47delivering packages myself, sorting packages myself,
05:50picking, packing, and shipping in our fulfillment centers.
05:53That gave me a very good perspective on the real ground reality.
05:58And that frontline obsession allowed me to then understand the technology behind all of that.
06:05So I would say it wasn't unnerving, but it was a huge learning experience
06:12which was aided by a frontline obsession.
06:15So there were lessons that Amazon taught you with the MBA school did not.
06:21I think Amazon taught me a lot more than the MBA school did.
06:25I love the school I come from, but I think working at Amazon over the last 13 years has been an education in many ways.
06:34You know, one of the biggest things for me is the entrepreneurial culture, customer obsession,
06:39the focus on solving for the customer outcome, making sure that you're empowering those who have the passion
06:48and the ability to solve problems with all the resources that they need.
06:52All of those have been lessons for me for sure.
06:55And in many ways, it relates back to or resonates well with my own personal ethos of a mission mindset.
07:04And Amazon is certainly a company where if you have a mission mindset and you have that missionary zeal to solve a problem,
07:13the company sort of almost conspires to give you the resources to solve it.
07:17You know, this interesting term is mission mindset, you know, and a lot of people in the sustainability world, you know,
07:24they use this very, they believe in that very, very, you know, they're very close to their heart.
07:31You see that, you know, when, I'm pretty sure when the Amazon was getting launched in India, got started in India,
07:36your focus would have been on building the logistics, the delivery, the procurement.
07:42You know, how much of sustainability or the concept of sustainability was there in your day-to-day operations?
07:51And was it something that could you take us through those days?
07:55Oh, yeah, absolutely.
07:56So, sustainability has been a part of our journey right from day one.
08:02Sustainability, while, you know, as we've gotten larger over the last 10 years, not just in India,
08:07but globally, we have magnified our efforts because we say that success and scale brings broad responsibility.
08:15And we truly believe that, that we have a responsibility to the society and the future generations
08:21to leave the world a better place than when we started.
08:24So, our contributions, our investments, our efforts have only grown with every subsequent year.
08:30But even when we started, we'd worked on sustainable materials for our building design.
08:36We worked on optimal lighting from a design perspective.
08:39So, you use a lot less lighting in your fulfillment centers and delivery stations.
08:44We worked on solar powering our fulfillment centers, hot centers, and delivery stations much, much earlier,
08:51like almost 10 years ago now.
08:53We worked on water conservation, whether it was on making sure that we are water efficient in its use
08:59or building rainwater harvesting as part of our building design
09:05or working on using gray water in our toilets and things like that.
09:11All of that has been, you know, an initiative that has been a part of who we are.
09:16I'll give you two very diverse examples, right?
09:20The first is from the packaging domain.
09:22You and I have spoken about this a few times in the past, but just to put some numbers to that, right?
09:28Since we started, we've been able to reduce the weight of our packages by 38%.
09:34That means that the same packages occupy 38% or have 38% less weight.
09:41This has been done using technology like machine learning to optimize box sizes
09:46and reduce the air that we ship in packages.
09:48It has been done by inventing solutions where we are able to eliminate packaging completely.
09:55So we have tertiary plastic boxes, which are reusable for thousands of trips,
10:00which carry packages inside it so we can reduce or eliminate packaging in many ways.
10:06This has been done by making sure that we are inventing different types of paper packaging.
10:11Doing all of that, we've been able to reduce the carbon footprint and also reduce the waste of the customer doorstep.
10:17That's one example of a packaging effort which has been ongoing and continues to be there for the last 10 years.
10:25A very different, diverse example, but equal in impact, if not more, is our partnership with the Indian Railways.
10:33In 2019, you became the first company from an e-commerce perspective to partner with them for parcel carriage.
10:41And all your fast trains like the Shatabdi, Duronto, all of them have van parcels that carry Amazon shipments with them.
10:50These trains are electric.
10:52Even from a source of electricity perspective, even if you counter with that, it's still 30% more efficient compared to road transportation when it comes to emission.
11:06So that's where, you know, those are the kinds of initiatives that we've been involved in over the last 10, 13 years that we've been here.
11:14And all of it has been the way we operate and not so much as, you know, we've realized now that we need to give back and let's make some big investments.
11:24We truly believe it has to be the way we operate.
11:27We took a bold goal in 2019 to be net zero carbon by 2040.
11:32We stand by it.
11:34In order to achieve it, it won't come through point in time investment.
11:38It's going to come through making sustainability a part of our operation.
11:42It's just the way we need to operate to hit that bold mission.
11:47Our track record demonstrates that when we take bold goals, we deliver them.
11:51So in India, very specifically in 2019, we took a very bold goal.
11:57We said that by 2025, we will be having 10,000 vehicles in our electric fleet.
12:04Back in 2019, you will remember there were hardly any OEMs who were building logistics electric vehicles or building them at scale.
12:13We worked with every single OEM from startups to scale and large OEMs.
12:18We worked with them on the right vehicle design, worked with them on range, worked with them on charging infrastructure.
12:25And we were able to achieve our goal one year ahead.
12:28So by 2024, we had 10,000 electric vehicles in our fleet.
12:33What we are meeting, the venue that we are meeting at today is another such bold goal.
12:38In 2024, December, we took a bold goal to be returning back more water than what we consume in our direct operations in India by 2027.
12:49And to do that, we are going to talk about the projects, whether it's the optimization initiatives I spoke about earlier in our facilities
12:59or it is the lake rejuvenation projects in Bangalore, Hyderabad and right here in Delhi.
13:05You know, coming to your, you mentioned about 2019 when you had this whole, you know, you chalked out your plan for 2040.
13:14You know, that was the time when you signed the climate pledge, if I'm not mistaken.
13:18Yes. So was that part of that whole, did it come as part of the whole journey, the Saskatchewan journey?
13:24So the climate pledge, which we signed in 2019, was designed to get us to net zero carbon by 2040.
13:32Or it was an intent or a bold commitment to get to net zero carbon by 2040.
13:38And it is also about taking other like-minded organizations along in the journey.
13:44Because getting there is a hard path and it can only be done if everyone comes together.
13:49And today we have over 500 signatories.
13:52And, you know, if you talk about India, these are companies like Tech Mahindra and Infosys and other companies who are along with us in this journey of getting to net zero carbon.
14:04You know, there is a lot to be gained with idea sharing.
14:07There is a lot to be gained by infrastructure sharing.
14:10There is a lot of collaboration which can happen to bring everyone to a stage where we are net zero carbon.
14:17So how did climate pledge in a sense, you know, have an influence on your day-to-day operations?
14:24You know, we are sitting in 2025 right now and in 2019 when you signed it.
14:30Did you, has there been any impact on your day-to-day operations that what you blessed in 2019?
14:36Yeah, absolutely.
14:37So I always believe that when you take a bold vision, it kicks off a virtuous cycle.
14:45So you then give the organization on North Star to go to words and it starts with that bold vision, which is to say that we will be net zero carbon by 2040.
14:57It then moves on to eager adoption of existing technologies.
15:03So the work we did with the Indian railways, the work we are doing on packaging optimization, the work we did in the electric vehicle fleet, the work we are doing on renewable diesel, the work we are doing on LNG.
15:16All of that is about eager adoption of existing technologies.
15:20It then goes to, you know, helping the ecosystem grow.
15:25So the Climate Pledge Fund, which is a $2 billion fund, which is looking at investing in startups, which are in this phase of accelerating the advent of renewable energy or helping in, you know, energy management systems and things like that.
15:41You then create new technologies.
15:44And then it goes back to taking people along, which is other companies and things like that.
15:49That, to me, completes the virtuous cycle.
15:52So when we took that bold goal in 2019, the whole organization across the world started looking to eagerly adopt existing technologies, started looking for opportunities where we can accelerate technology from, you know, getting to a mass scale, started working with the other like-minded organizations in those countries.
16:14And that virtuous cycle is now spinning.
16:17So the bold vision, the 2019, it didn't change anything from an ethos perspective, but gave us a north star to go after.
16:26Is that the strategy with Amazon has been following in its sustainability journey throughout that you set up a broad vision, a bold vision, and they said, okay, let's go for it.
16:35It's not just about sustainability.
16:37It's about any big change you would like to drive.
16:43It has to start with a bold vision, which is not just a statement, but a deep commitment to drive a paradigm shift.
16:52Whether it's in business or it's in the government or it's in the government or anywhere else, right?
16:59So you have to have that bold sort of mission, which is a deep commitment.
17:07And from there on, you then find the path.
17:10So at Amazon, we, you know, we have this that we say often that you have to be very strong on the vision, but you can be fuzzy on the details.
17:20So you'll find the right path to that vision, but you have to be firm on that vision to say that that is something which we have a deep commitment towards and we'll find a path.
17:31It's like a manifestation.
17:32You manifest yourself standing on the...
17:34You could say that.
17:35Yes, you could say that.
17:37Interesting.
17:37I'm just curious to understand, you know, because Amazon, you know, going by your MBA literature, you know, has a lot of focus on reducing cost.
17:49There's a lot of drive to reduce cost, improve, you know, operational efficiency.
17:54So how do you sort of, you know, balance, you know, building a viable business, a sustainable business solution with that framework?
18:03Is that, is that something that has, what are the challenges that you sort of came across and if there's any lessons that you'd like to share from that?
18:12I don't want to sort of trivialize the thing to say that it's not true, but it is not entirely true what you said.
18:20Okay.
18:20The perspective that there is...
18:22You think it's a myth basically.
18:24Yes.
18:24The perspective that there is a hard trade-off between sustainability and cost of operations is not true.
18:33And I'll prove to you with examples.
18:35The railways example I spoke about, right?
18:38From a per-ton carriage perspective, railways is cheaper than if you were to send something by road transport, especially on the long haul.
18:47And it is also more sustainable.
18:49If you think about packaging from a weight reduction perspective, it reduces the carbon emission, but it is also cheaper because it costs money to provide overpack and things like that.
19:01So it is also, you know, an accelerator to the cost.
19:05From an electric vehicle perspective, you know, from a operating cost point of view, and also with the support of the government, it is cheaper for our partners to operate electric vehicles vis-a-vis diesel.
19:19So, where I started with, right, the virtuous cycle, all of this I would put in the bracket of either adoption of existing technology.
19:28Okay.
19:28And none of this is actually cost-accredive.
19:31But at the same time, you need to spend money and invest in ideas which you think will have, you know, will be bold later on.
19:40And that's where, you know, working on renewable diesel trucks, working on large format electric vehicles, where we have just completed 10,000 kilometers across India with a 32-feet vehicle.
19:55Or working on hydrogen-powered battery storage solutions, all of these are, you know, ideas that we are investing in, which may not have short-term returns immediately, but when we get it right, we'll be ready to adopt those technologies.
20:12So what you're saying is not entirely true.
20:14Like, you know, the perspective to say the technology is not there for us to be more sustainable, it just costs more, is not the right perspective.
20:23There is enough and more existing technology that you can eagerly adopt.
20:28And beyond that, you need to invest for the future and those investments when it's the right time to scale.
20:35So it all depends on the, how you scale it, at what point of time you scale it and?
20:41100%.
20:42It depends on not just your ability to adopt, but also your ability to find the right time to scale at a large level.
20:52And Saudis may have a longer-term payback.
20:55And if that's the right thing to do from an investment perspective, you should do that.
21:00So maybe the payback period is five years or seven years.
21:03And if it's the right thing to do in perpetuity, it's the right thing to do.
21:06I'll come back to you, you know, with more India-specific.
21:09But I'm a bit curious on the water conservation front.
21:13And, you know, with something that Amazon announced in December last year that would focus on water conservation.
21:19And both of us, you know, have this thing, Delhi and Bengaluru, you know, are water-stressed.
21:26And we have seen that play out in the Yamuna.
21:28We have seen that play out in the Vanishing Lakes in Bengaluru.
21:31Could you, you know, could you take, could you walk us through what is the water conservation efforts that, and the plans that you have?
21:40So, from a water conservation perspective, we already spoke about the work that we do in our own facilities to be more water efficient.
21:47That was one part of giving back more water than we consume.
21:53But in addition to that, what we are doing is restoring lakes in Bangalore.
22:00The Bangaluru, the lake you spoke about, is the Yamare Lake on the outskirts of Bangalore.
22:05This is now gotten, or had gotten reduced to just a two-acre pond almost.
22:11And from there, we are taking it to more than 20 acres.
22:14And we are going to ensure that there is 270 million liters of water, which is generated through this project.
22:23We are working with a very able and capable partner in SayTrees.
22:28And that's how we do these things, that we find the right local expertise who can then come in and, you know, work on it.
22:36And we can provide the reach and the capital.
22:39So, in Hyderabad, again, SayTrees is working on rejuvenating a lake, which will go from three acres to 33 acres and give back 300 million liters of water.
22:49In Delhi, upstream of the Yamuna, we are going to give back 400 million liters of water, this time with Hasten Regeneration.
22:59So, another project that we are doing with Hasten Regeneration, which is really interesting and fascinating, quite honestly, is the one in Mumbai.
23:06Where, you know, right in the heart of Thane, the mangrove is home to hundreds and thousands of pink flamingos.
23:15And their natural habitat is threatened by the plastic waste that flows into that creek.
23:21It comes from the various drains from Mumbai.
23:26And in one of those drains, we are working with Hasten Regeneration and plastic fissured to fish out 150 tons of plastic.
23:34And this will then ensure that not only the current generation of flamingos, but their future generations are also protected because this plastic can actually cause damage to them, not just from, you know, the current flamingo perspective, but it could cause generational impact for them.
23:54So, we look for the right, relevant experts who can help work with us on ground to create real meaningful impact.
24:05What about the local context?
24:06Because all these projects would need you to be in touch with the locals.
24:12Without the local support, I don't think any of these projects would work.
24:14You're 100% right.
24:15And we always say that it is a collective imperative.
24:19No one organization, individual, or government can do it alone.
24:25And all of us have to come together.
24:27So, just this project that I spoke about with Hasten Regeneration, all the employment which is there is of locals who are working on that project with plastic fissure.
24:38Similarly in Bangalore, similarly in Hyderabad.
24:41And it's not just about employing the locals, but it's also about giving back to the community.
24:46Think about Bengaluru.
24:47You know, last year and someone who's staying in Bangalore, it was so visceral to almost reach the day zero where, you know, water, groundwater was so scarce.
25:00Telangana had such a moment.
25:01Delhi, like you said, is, you know, depleted from a water, groundwater perspective.
25:06And that's where giving back to the local civic society is truly important.
25:12And at the same time, work with the local government bodies, make sure that you're working on things that are priorities for them because their priorities are determined by what's important for the nation and so on and so forth.
25:23So, are we sensing a change of strategy in terms of your approach towards sustainability?
25:28Because if I can't, correct me if I'm wrong, but, you know, till now we have seen a trajectory where we're looking at packaging.
25:36We've looked at, you know, basically something that's connected with your business operations.
25:42But here, we're looking at Amazon, getting connected with the local communities, talking about issues which matter to the communities.
25:50So, is there a sense of change in strategy that's underplayed?
25:54No, not at all.
25:55And whether it's in the field of sustainability or in general, work with the community, that's something that we've always been doing.
26:03So, when our first fulfillment center opened way back in 2012 in Mumbai and Bivandi, it opened with a community center where we worked with the local community on teaching women and children computer education.
26:16After that, we've worked on, you know, massive programs where we have worked, like, some of them which are, I am deeply passionate about.
26:26One of them is the Samridhi program.
26:28So, you have a lot of government schemes.
26:30You have a lot of, you know, avenues for people who don't have the resources to avail help from the government.
26:38But they don't always have the wherewithal on how to do it.
26:41So, the Samridhi program actually teaches people how to enroll for the Aadhaar card, how to avail of the, you know, Pradhan Mandiri schemes and things like that.
26:50Similar to that is a program on menstrual health and hygiene where we are setting up machines and spending capital to set up machines where people can produce sanitary napkins and, you know, retail them at half the price of what is available in the market.
27:07So, these are women entrepreneurs who are making sanitary napkins, making them available to hundreds and thousands of women.
27:15And we're also buying from them for our own facilities for free disbursement in the toilets.
27:22And that we're creating a virtuous cycle.
27:25With this effort, we aim to impact 200,000 women.
27:28Another initiative is the ASHRAE centers, which is our initiative to provide shelter.
27:36ASHRAE means shelter in English.
27:38To provide shelter to delivery associates no matter which company they work for.
27:43So, think about the, you know, summer of Delhi or summer of Hyderabad or Mumbai.
27:48And it's, you know, in the middle of the day, even if you give delivery associates time off, there wasn't a place where they could go, sit peacefully in an air-conditioned environment, get free tea, coffee, and water, and actually take some time off, charge their mobile phone.
28:06And we created such facilities across the country, and we are creating hundreds of them, where delivery associates of any company can come and sort of take a rest in the middle of the day and, you know, then go about their work.
28:20So, work with the community, working on hyper-local, locally relevant topics is something that we've always focused on.
28:30Even in sustainability, like the projects that we spoke about today, so it's about balancing both, making sure that your own direct operations are getting more and more sustainable, and finding the right opportunities to work on in the community.
28:46The Right Now Climate Fund, which is one of the reasons why we are able to do all of this in India, has been added even in India for the last many years.
28:57You know, AWS, for example, you know, which is, given the data centers, water has been a bit of a, you know, there's a concern that data centers do cause a lot of water.
29:10What is the status on that front, in terms of, are you doing any specific measures to make our data centers more, consume more water?
29:17Oh, yeah. So, one is, obviously, driving efficiency.
29:21While water consumption is important to know, it's not as important to know as is water use efficiency, that how efficient are you in the use of your water, and then giving back water to the groundwater table.
29:38And that's what we are focusing on.
29:40In addition to that, we are also using technologies like air cooling to dramatically lower the need for water in the first place.
29:48In fact, there are data centers in Ireland and Sweden, where the water consumption is such that for 95% of the year, there is no need for water.
30:00And there are air-cooled data centers.
30:03And these data centers use water only in the very hot times of the year.
30:09And the amount of water they use annually is as little as what's required for 25 households.
30:15So, the water consumption, it's both.
30:19So, while water consumption, to your point, is, you know, right and good to know, what's more important is, no matter how much water, how little or how much more you use, you should get more efficient with it and give back more.
30:32Anything specific in India for AWS that you have in mind?
30:35So, for AWS, at this time, I'm not able to talk about any specific plans for India.
30:40But, you know, being a technology company and focusing on global standardization, whether it's good ideas, no matter where they are, they will find a way in all countries.
30:53There are a lot of ideas from India that have been exported, be it on the way we serve customers or other ways.
30:59And similarly, in, you know, ideas which are generated in other countries, come to India.
31:04You know, interesting, you mentioned customers, you know, and customers, how have customers taken to the, you know, the sustainable solutions or the sustainable products or offerings that, say, Amazon is coming out with?
31:19Are they willing to pay an extra price for it?
31:22Is that a conundrum that you, how do you resolve this conundrum?
31:26Because a lot of companies we speak to, you say, look, since the customer is not paying extra for what they are getting, you know, there's a sort of innovation on the corporate India's part to be very specific that should he go the extra mile to do something with the customer is still not ready to pay.
31:43It's good to do, but not ready to pay extra for it.
31:46So, how do you balance this conundrum?
31:48How do you solve it?
31:50So, customers do deeply care about sustainable solutions and sustainable products.
31:54We did a survey recently of thousands of customers and 69% of them came back saying that they care about sustainable solutions and they like the fact that we are working on sustainable solutions and they would like to receive less packaging, even lesser than the one which, you know, they like getting products with less packaging.
32:15So, customers do care about sustainable solutions.
32:16So, customers do care about it.
32:19To your point, I would go back to saying that it doesn't always have to be a trade-off.
32:24We need to find ways in which we make sustainability just the way we operate across sectors.
32:32Lower the cost of adoption of sustainable solutions and where required invest.
32:38But, are customers keen on buying sustainable products and care about their own footprints for the environment?
32:48They certainly do.
32:49So, you see there is a space where from a seller perspective, the producer perspective, that they could do a branding, you know, have a sustainability branding, build a moat around that, build products or solutions around that.
33:05Is there a space for that?
33:06It's certainly my personal view that it is quite possible and in fact, I would go to the extent of saying that it would be something that customers would like to see.
33:18So, you view that, is it possible in India or maybe you can explain to us through some examples, you know, is it possible to build sustainable solutions out of India at scale?
33:31So, it is and there are a lot of sellers who are focusing on building sustainable solutions and, you know, the global exports program that we have, which is already enabling multiple billions of dollars of exports.
33:47A part of that is focused on sellers who are building sustainable solutions.
33:52But, the point that you were getting to earlier that, do I see customers adopting it eagerly?
33:58Yes, I do.
33:59Do I see that as messaging as a differentiator for sellers who are adopting sustainable practices?
34:06Yes, I do.
34:06So, how do you prepare the ecosystem for that?
34:09How do you prepare the sellers, the vendors?
34:11Because, it's not a one-man show.
34:14We need to develop the ecosystem for having a sustainable solution.
34:18You develop a sustainable ecosystem.
34:20Are you working towards that?
34:22Is some measure that's working towards that?
34:23So, absolutely.
34:24So, you know, efforts like what we're talking about today, right?
34:28The Amazon Water Dialogues, the first chapter or the first instance of bringing together policy makers, media people like yourself, or NGO partners, or people who are the true unsung heroes of the country who are working on, you know, lake regeneration or aquifer measurement.
34:53But, bringing all of this diverse and the industry, bringing all of these diverse sets of people together and talking about things which are imperatives for the future is one way.
35:06The climate pledge is another way.
35:09Getting into measuring carbon footprint and what it is that the impact of your operations, not just direct operations, but of, you know, the vendors and sellers, that's another way.
35:21So, it has to start with truly understanding the impact that we have and then making efforts towards improving it.
35:30So, have there been instances where you have developed some sustainable solution within Amazon and you've scaled it up, taken it to the globe?
35:39I'm talking about India specific.
35:41And are there examples like that?
35:42I think the Railways Partnership is a good example where it was something that we, you know, I won't say that it was never done globally, but the scale at which we've done it in India is unique.
35:55And it's certainly something that, you know, in other places of the world that we are looking at.
36:01That's one example.
36:03The packaging-free shipments that I spoke about where we said that to use, you know, tertiary plastic containerization to reduce the packaging required.
36:15Instead of, you know, instead of sending boxes on their own, we were putting them in plastic crates.
36:22That was an India-first solution.
36:25So, there are many such examples which were invented in India and wherever they find relevance from a scale perspective, they're exported.
36:35But are they impactors in any other markets?
36:37Oh, yes.
36:38So, packaging and the packaging solutions we spoke about, there are a lot of markets around the world, specifically Japan, where they've been adopted.
36:47So, you know, finally, like, you know, in terms of building, you know, a business case for a sustainable solution at scale from India, you know, what is your, what would be your advice to be the entrepreneur or the ecosystem developers?
37:06What would be the key ingredients of that?
37:09I think that it has to start with a deep passion towards solving these problems.
37:16They are very complex problems to start on.
37:19And unless you are deeply passionate about solving them, finding the right scalable solution is going to be hard.
37:25Second would be to find the right existing technologies that you can, you know, adopt at scale and build the right solutions for.
37:37And then finally, look for, you know, people who will be able to invest in this endeavor who are like-minded and will help you scale.
37:47So, the collaborative nature of this space is truly essential to understand because you won't be able to change the way things have been done unless you do them together.
37:59And so, collaboration in my mind is key, whether it is finding the right, so if you're talking about an entrepreneur who's just starting out, finding the right set of investors who themselves are deeply passionate about finding solutions for tomorrow, working with them, adopting technologies that have been successful in India and other sectors or in other countries and, you know, building with that.
38:23Those are the kinds of building blocks, but it has to start with a deep passion to do something for the environment because it's just the right thing to do.
38:33So, are there any programs from Amazon which are going to support or help those entrepreneurs in the space?
38:40So, the Climate Pledge Fund, which I spoke about earlier, which is a $2 billion fund, looks to do just that.
38:47It looks for ideas which at scale can accelerate the advent of, you know, sustainable solutions and looks to invest in those.
38:58Have a very large initiative for that.
39:01And are there any, already, are there any startups in those programs?
39:05There are startups in those programs and I don't remember the name top of my mind.
39:12I think there are startups from India as well, but there are already thriving startups who have been funded by that fund.
39:18Interesting.
39:19Love to hear more about that and thanks for your time.
39:23Thank you so much.
39:23It's always a pleasure to meet you.
39:25Thank you, Afinav.
39:25Thank you very much.
39:26Take care.
39:27Bye.
39:35Bye.
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