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.
We focus on several priority areas across our business and respond to emergent needs where we are 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
- Empowering students and adults through education and skills training
- Supporting disaster relief and response efforts
- Funding nature in our communities
- Addressing health equity
To continue serving and innovating for our customers, we invest heavily in the communities where we operate. Amazon has made significant investments in the U.S. economy since 2010, which have contributed more than $880 billion to national gross domestic product.
With approximately 1.5 million full- and part-time global employees as of the end of 2023, Amazon adds economic vibrancy in the places where we invest: 47% of the people we hired for operations roles in 2023 were unemployed before joining Amazon, and two of every five U.S. jobs that we’ve created over the last five years have been in towns with fewer than 50,000 residents.
We believe that all people should have access to housing they can afford. We’re working to address national housing affordability challenges in the U.S. starting in our hometown communities.
In 2021, we launched the Housing Equity Fund, a commitment of $2 billion to preserve and create more than 20,000 affordable homes in three communities where we have a high concentration of employees: Washington state’s Puget Sound region; Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
We strive to bring healthy, affordable food to our communities through our delivery service providers (DSPs), donations, funding, and partnerships with organizations helping individuals and families faced with food insecurity.
In partnership with local food banks, we are scaling our food redistribution efforts to contribute to food security in local communities. As of the end of 2023, 100% of our grocery facilities in North America and Europe partner with a local food bank, over 40 of which are Feeding America affiliates.
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.
In 2020, we pledged to help 29 million people around the world grow their technical skills with free cloud computing skills training by 2025. Our programs to support this commitment include Amazon Future Engineer, AWS Training and Certification, AWS re/Start, AWS Academy, AWS Educate, AWS Think Big Space, our partnership with Girls in Tech, and AWS GetIT.
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 speed in the form of 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, Japan, and Australia form the backbone of our strategy. These hubs 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.
We use nature-based solutions to mitigate carbon emissions outside of 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.
AWS has already awarded over $32 million and supported 229 global organizations, up from 90 organizations in 2022.
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. Since Whole Foods Market began the program in 2006, the program has provided over 390 loans representing over $29 million in capital for loan recipients. In 2023, Whole Foods Market funded 11 loans totaling over $1.2 million.
To make an impact in our communities, Whole Foods Market has three foundations to support strategic programs across the globe:
