Amazon has ‘come a long way’ but still faces a lot of questions on sustainability.

Jeff Bezos announces first beneficiaries of his $10 billion climate fund

Unlike other tech giants with climate change pledges, Bezos focuses on funding.

Bezos also named the Environmental Defense Fund, which tends to take a more corporate-friendly approach to its advocacy. It’s worked with companies like Walmart and McDonald’s on their sustainability goals. “The needs are enormous,” Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp told The Verge after the Bezos fund was announced in February. “No matter what organization receives this funding, what’s important is that the money be put to work.” Krupp and McCarthy’s organizations will each receive $100 million, according to statements from each group.

Some of the big green groups Bezos chose, however, have been beset by scandal lately. Human rights abuses came to light in a 2019 BuzzFeed News investigation into the nearly 60-year-old conservation charity World Wildlife Fund. The organization’s anti-poaching efforts supported paramilitary groups that captured, tortured, and killed villagers and indigenous peoples in Asia and Africa, BuzzFeed reported.

Two more groups Bezos will fund have had recent shifts in leadership as part of a broader reckoning with systemic racism and sexism within science fields and environmentalism. The CEO of conservation group Nature Conservancy decided to leave his post in June 2019 following allegations of gender discrimination within the organization. The president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ken Kimmell, said that he would step down at the end of the year. Kimmell’s decision follows the high-profile resignation of the organization’s former coalitions coordinator, Ruth Tyson, who penned a public letter saying, “It was really stressful and traumatic for me working [at the Union of Concerned Scientists] and I hope no other Black people ever have to share this pain.” World Wildlife Fund and Nature Conservancy said they would each get $100 million from Bezos’ fund, while the Union of Concerned Scientists said it’s been given $15 million.

Among the established organizations, Bezos also decided to fund a recently formed group that centers racial equity in its work, the NDN Collective. It was founded by a diverse group of Native American activists in 2018 to fund and support indigenous-led movements and sustainability initiatives. Bezos will also fund the new Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, which was launched in 2019 with a focus on supporting women in the Southeast US. Bezos is funding research groups, too, like the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute and World Resources Institute.

BEZOS HAS SO FAR AVOIDED KEY ACTIVIST GROUPS THAT HAVE BEEN CRITICAL OF HIM AND AMAZON

Bezos has so far avoided key activist groups that have been critical of him and Amazon, like the Sunrise Movement, which has spearheaded campaigns for a Green New Deal. “A reminder that Jeff Bezos has made over $48 Billion during the pandemic while over 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Imagine if he actually had to pay taxes and what that money could help fund,” Sunrise Movement tweeted in September.

Still, Sunrise Movement hasn’t necessarily ruled out accepting funding from Bezos to promote its campaigns. “It’s better his extreme wealth sits with organizations like the Climate Justice Alliance and Sunrise than in some offshore tax haven,” Stephen O’Hanlon, Sunrise Movement communications director, said to The Verge in an email after the Bezos fund was announced in February.