Amazon has renewed its focus on the environment and sustainability by giving the Climate Pledge program a big push with its annual Echo device refresh for the year. Amazon, which co-founded the Climate Pledge commitment to be net zero carbon across their business by the year 2040, is looking to ensure that it produces the equivalent renewable energy that each Amazon device in use globally, consumes. Amazon says that the new Echo devices will all carry the Climate Pledge Friendly badge. As part of the yearly refresh, the new Echo smart speaker, the new versions of the Echo Dot, the Echo Show 10 smart display and Echo Dot with Clock as well as the Echo Dot Kids Edition, all of which get a new spherical design and an environmentally friendly construction.
Amazon says all the updated Echo devices are made with 100% post-consumer recycled fabric, 100% recycled die-cast aluminum, and post-consumer recycled plastic. There will also be up to 50% post-consumer recycled plastic in products and there is 50% post-consumer recycled plastic into certain power adapters that are now shipping. The company says all wood fiber-based materials used in the packaging for the Echo devices have been sourced from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources. The company is also tweaking the packaging of products, to eliminate waste and as many as 9 million plastic bags from the device packaging just this year. “In fact, the recycled materials used in our devices launching in 2020 could fill over 800 garbage trucks worth of plastics, fabrics, and aluminum,” says Rachel Praetorius, who leads sustainability and hardware operations for Amazon Devices & Services.
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Amazon Echo users will also get a new Low Power Mode on their smart speakers and smart displays. This is designed to conserve energy during period when the Echo speaker or smart display may not be in use. New Echo speakers and smart displays will ship with the Low Power Mode while all existing Echo devices will get this feature as part of a software update that will be rolled out soon.
Later this year, Amazon will also roll out the energy consumption dashboard that will log and present the energy consumption of all smart home devices in one place, within the Alexa app. This dashboard will be available to users in the US initially and can intelligently understand if the user isn’t using a particular device and turn it off. Alexa will also learn from the Alexa Routines that a user sets for lights and AC thermostats in particular, to save energy in the less or no usage times.
Amazon says they are investing in renewable energy with new wind and solar farms that produce clean energy equivalent to the electricity used by every customer’s Echo device. These wind and solar farms are being set up in the US first. “We have a bold goal to continue building new renewable energy projects until we account for the energy consumption of all Amazon devices,” says raetorius.
The new Echo and Fire TV devices will carry the ‘Reducing CO2’ Product Carbon Footprint Label.
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