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Sustainability
Sustainability

Communities

We strive to harness Amazon’s scale and innovative spirit to help build strong communities now and for future generations. We invest in the communities where we live and work, helping to generate economic growth, while working alongside community partners to build impactful programs and create solutions to pressing challenges.

Progress

$3.6B committed through the Amazon's housing fund to create and preserve more than 35,000 affordable homes

Apartments and townhouses.

$17.9M distributed in AWS cloud and AI technology for education

A person holding a baby, sitting on a chair in a kitchen.

5.8M students reached globally through Amazon Future Engineer programs

Two people sitting with laptops at tables in a quiet area, with leafy trees in the foreground.

Our approach

We focus on several priority areas across our business and respond to emergent needs where we're uniquely positioned to make a positive difference. Our work especially emphasizes historically underrepresented communities, because we envision a world that embraces diverse perspectives and where all individuals have equitable opportunities.


Our community impact efforts are focused on seven key areas:

  • Supporting economic impact in communities

  • Creating and preserving affordable housing

  • Addressing food insecurity and basic needs

  • Addressing health equity

  • Empowering individuals through education and skills training

  • Supporting disaster relief and response efforts

  • Funding nature in our communities

Supporting economic impact in communities

To continue serving and innovating for our customers, we invest heavily in the communities where we operate.

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A tractor drives in front of rows of solar panels in a green field.
A person wearing an Amazon T-shirt works with a large roll of paper on a machine.
Two people examine bottled products.
  • We’ve made significant investments in the U.S., contributing more than $1.8 trillion to the economy since 2010. In 2025 alone, we invested $340 billion in the U.S.
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  • Amazon remains a leading job creator in the U.S., adding more than 800,000 jobs over the last decade, with two out of five operations jobs created in towns with populations less than 50,000. Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $450 billion in over 1,000 small towns and rural communities across the U.S.
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  • More than 60% of sales in our store are from independent sellers—most of which are small or medium sized-businesses. Independent sellers provided more than $100 billion in wages to U.S. employees in 2024. These thriving businesses are creating meaningful employment opportunities, with independent sellers now employing over 2 million people across the U.S. to support their Amazon-related operations—an 11% year-over-year increase.
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Creating affordable housing

All people should have access to housing they can afford, but many communities in the U.S. are facing an affordable housing shortage, with low-income and minority families disproportionately affected. We’re working to address national housing affordability challenges in the U.S., including near public transit and in historically diverse, underserved communities, starting in our hometown communities: Washington State’s Puget Sound region, the National Capital Region, and Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Amazon initially committed $2 billion to create and preserve 20,000 affordable homes across these communities. We exceeded this original goal two years early, in 2024. By the end of 2025, we had committed $2.4 billion to create and preserve more than 23,000 homes. We have increased our commitment to a total of $3.6 billion to create or preserve 35,000 affordable homes in these three communities.

Explore the Housing Equity Fund

Goal

$3.6B committed to create and preserve more than 35,000 affordable homes

Progress

$2.4B

committed to create and preserve more than 23,000 affordable homes
Goal: $3.6B
$2.4B

Addressing food insecurity and basic needs

We strive to bring healthy, affordable food to our communities through our delivery service providers, donations, funding, and partnerships with organizations helping individuals and families faced with food insecurity. In partnership with local food banks, we’re scaling our food redistribution efforts to contribute to food security in local communities.

Learn more
  • A hand pulling an orange out of a paper crate filled with fresh produce.

    99M meals donated or delivered to food banks, nonprofits, and households in need in 2025

  • Slices of grainy bread with butter on a wooden cutting board.

    26M meals of unsold food were donated across the U.S. through Whole Foods Market

  • A head of lettuce growing in a garden.

    61 U.S. food banks partnered with to redistribute surplus food to people experiencing hunger

Three people move crates of groceries in front of a Whole Foods Market van.

Whole Foods programs

The Whole Foods Market foundations further fulfill the company’s higher purpose of nourishing people and the planet by helping to advance healthy food access, nutrition, and economic opportunities in local and global communities. Additionally, Whole Foods Market runs a Local Producer Loan Program to support small, local, and independent food producers across the U.S. and Canada with business expansion loans.
Discover programs

Empowering individuals through education

We believe in the power of education to unlock human potential, which is why we invest in programs and tools to help children, students, and adults develop valuable STEM skills.

  • Upskilling

    In 2019, we set a goal to help 300,000 U.S. employees gain new skills by 2025. We met this goal in 2024 and exceeded it in 2025, with 599,000 U.S. employees participating since 2019 and more than 980,000 globally.

    $2.5B

    committed to expand access to education and skills training and prepare at least 50 million people for the future of work by 2030

  • AI Ready

    In 2025, we integrated cloud and AI technology across community initiatives to automate processes, analyze community sentiment, and enable data-driven decisions. We equip nonprofit partners and organizations reaching underserved audiences with tech-enabled tools to scale their impact.

    $17.9M

    distributed in AWS cloud and AI technology for education in 2025

  • Amazon Future Engineer

    Our global childhood-to-career computer science program was created to inspire and educate thousands of students each year from underserved and underrepresented communities. Students explore computer science by meeting Amazon employees in virtual live career talks or exploring our real-world innovations.

    5.8M

    students reached through Amazon Future Engineer programs in 2025
    Discover program

  • Career Choice

    Over 100,000 employees worldwide—11% of all eligible associates—participated in Career Choice in 2025, and nearly 300,000 employees have participated since its inception in 2012.

    350,000+

    U.S. employees have participated in free education and training programs, like Career Choice.

Supporting disaster relief and response

We mobilize the full breadth of our infrastructure, cloud technology, and global logistics network to help communities affected by natural disasters. Disaster Relief by Amazon delivers rapid logistics and inventory, while AWS Disaster Response delivers information through access to connectivity and data.

Global Disaster Relief hubs within our fulfillment centers in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia store ready-to-ship essential items that are most needed following natural disasters and other emergencies, including shelter and shelter-repair materials, hygiene supplies, medical equipment, and basic household items.

Since 2017, we've donated more than 30 million relief items to communities affected by disasters. 

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Supporting communities through volunteering

During our 2025 Global Month of Volunteering, a record 131,700 Amazon employees from over 54 countries participated in over 6,300 events. Throughout the year, more than 270,000 employees volunteered across more than 50 countries. Through Amazon’s pro bono program, our legal and public policy professionals use their skills to help individuals and organizations that cannot otherwise afford access to legal support. Since the inception of the program, more than 2,400 members of our legal and public policy teams have collectively volunteered over 80,000 hours of service.
A forest with verdant shrubs covering the forest floor.

Funding nature in our communities

We use nature-based solutions to mitigate carbon emissions outside our value chain and supplement the carbon-reduction efforts we’re driving across our operations. One critical aspect of this work is our commitment to investing in initiatives that protect the natural world, improve wildlife habitats, and promote biodiversity. 
Explore nature-based solutions

Addressing health equity

AWS is harnessing the power of the cloud to advance health equity globally.

AWS Health Equity Initiative

In July 2024, AWS concluded the AWS Health Equity Initiative (HEI), a $60 million commitment of cloud technology to address disparities in global health. Over three years, HEI supported 403 organizations across 39 countries, reaching every continent except Antarctica, reflecting the growing span of health customers and their focus on utilizing technology to address access to health care. 
Discover initiative

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