During Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, our Global Procurement Organisation (GPO) launched a dynamic series of global volunteering activities, under the banner of ‘Procurement for Good’, GPO’s social impact strategy. In partnership with Amazon in the Community (AITC), GPO hosted over 64 volunteering events across 127 cities worldwide, involving more than 1,200 enthusiastic employees. These initiatives represent a significant stride towards achieving GPO's goal of having 30% of its employees volunteering at least once a year, an endeavour that has been passionately championed by the organisation’s Vice President, Kennedy Oates.
During our Global Month of Volunteering, GPO employees volunteered and participated in 35 events in Europe, contributing a total of more than 1,500 volunteering hours. Volunteers engaged in various impactful activities, including packing over 15,000 backpacks with school supplies for families in need in Germany; collecting cigarette butts in Luxembourg; assembling over 10,800 hygiene and comfort kits for donation to refugees in Paris, Barcelona, Luxembourg and London; packing over 100,000 food donations in partnership with local food banks in Milan; repurposing coffee waste into compost in Barcelona; and collecting 20 full bags of plastic waste the Amsterdam canals.
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The inaugural event of the GPO’s volunteering series was in Luxembourg on 31st August. In collaboration with the NGO Serve the City, our volunteers started a district cleaning campaign around the Kirchberg area. Over 30 volunteers and their families participated in cleaning up over 14,500 cigarette butts and raising awareness about their detrimental impact on the environment. The collected cigarette butts will be recycled to create innovative urban furniture pieces, which will find their place in Amazon procurement catalogues, illustrating the team’s commitment to sustainable practices and creativity in minimising waste and promoting diverse local suppliers.
Milan, Italy
Amazon Global Procurement volunteers joined up with Banco Alimentare Lombardia in Milan to prepare and pack over 100,000 meals, distributed daily to approximately 50 charitable partners, providing nourishment and support to those who need it most.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
In partnership with Plastic Whale, a social enterprise with the inspiring mission of achieving plastic-free land and sea, more than 40 Amazon employees in Amsterdam took part in plastic fishing. Our team collected plastic waste from Amsterdam's waterways and helped raise awareness about plastic pollution and its impact on our environment. Twenty large, full bags of plastic and trash were successfully retrieved from the city's canals.
Barcelona, Spain
In collaboration with AbonoKm0, a non-profit network dedicated to transforming food scraps into an environmental solution, more than 30 employees in Barcelona came together to repurpose coffee waste into compost, which plays a vital role in nourishing the plants of Amazon’s BCN15 building. Additionally, volunteers made and harvested their own compost using coffee waste.
In July, a total of 179.12kg of organic material was collected for composting, resulting in a reduction of approximately 157.77kg of CO2 equivalent emissions; in August, 144.90kg was collected, leading to a reduction of 127.63kg of CO2 equivalent emissions; and in the first three weeks of September, 161.70kg was collected, contributing to a decrease of 142.43kg of CO2 equivalent emissions.
London, England
Volunteers filled over two hundred backpacks with school supplies in London to support Time & Talents, an organisation which seeks to create a world where everyone feels part of a community – and where nobody is left out, or left behind.
Procurement for Good
The #Procurement4Good initiative envisions every product and service purchased through GPO positively impacting local communities and the environment in which Amazon operates. Such initiatives allow GPO to leverage their unique position to give back to communities and engage employees and suppliers in meaningful ways, uniting in a common purpose and creating a positive ripple effect across the supplier ecosystem and the local communities where Amazon operates.
To learn more about our community engagement, click here.
