Hi, I’m Will Evans. I’m an investigative reporter covering climate change and corporate accountability. One of my latest stories was on how Amazon massively undercounts its carbon footprint. It’s Earth Day so AMA!

And we're done — thanks to everyone who asked Qs during this AMA! If you have information to share with us on this topic, like documents, data or tips, you can contact Will securely through Signal at 510-255-0865.‬

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Hi everyone, My name is Will Evans and I’m a senior reporter and producer at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. I’ve reported on labor and tech – like our investigation into safety problems at Tesla to our series looking at working conditions at Amazon warehouses. My work has prompted government investigations, legislation, reforms and prosecutions. Now, I’m focusing on how corporations are held accountable (or not) when it comes to climate change. My last two stories have covered:

  • How Amazon is drastically undercounting its carbon footprint and asked that its report not be shared publicly.
  • How big-name companies like Google, Netflix and LinkedIn, who claim to be climate leaders, were conspicuously absent from a climate action ad that urged the federal government to “ACT NOW” on the climate crisis.

PROOF: https://i.redd.it/fb009tbulqt81.png

Comments: 26 • Responses: 6  • Date: 

PeachCinnamonToast5 karma

Do you have any hope that exposing Amazon’s working conditions and carbon footprint will make them do the right thing and improve the way they do business? Or will they just keep denying there’s a problem?

RevealNews6 karma

Do I have hope that reporting will cause some positive change! Yes, there’s always hope! That’s why we do what we do. But of course, it’s never a sure thing, and sometimes these things take a long time to have an effect. Sometimes it’s not the company that responds right away, but other actors – workers, customers, activists, shareholders, regulators, lawmakers – who then put the pressure on to change. There’s already been some impact on working conditions: https://revealnews.org/article/amazons-warehouse-quotas-have-been-injuring-workers-for-years-now-officials-are-taking-action/ Shareholders are voting on some workplace and environmental issues coming up next month. So the question is how Amazon will respond to all of this pressure and scrutiny.

DoubleExposure4 karma

Is there any actual good news regarding climate change? Or are corporations, the stock market, billionaires, and governments that only pay lip service to the environment going to destroy all life on earth as we know it?

RevealNews7 karma

Ah, well there are a *lot* of really smart, committed, passionate people working hard to turn the tide, inside and out of companies and other institutions, coming up with innovative solutions and pushing for change. The latest report from international climate scientists says that while we are not on track to avert disaster, and it will take massive, dramatic, immediate action, it’s not too late either: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/04/1090577162/climate-change-un-ipcc-report

RevealNews2 karma

Hi everyone! I'm excited to see your questions. I'll get to work answering the ones that have come in...

Wthq4hq4hqrhqe1 karma

are we fucked? serious question

RevealNews2 karma

I’ll leave it to the IPCC to answer that one. Here’s the latest report, with the good and the bad: https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/ In short, “It’s now or never.”

Kaviex2 karma

If I am reading the article correctly, they are under reporting based on not representing the embodied carbon and carbon through use generated by their products sold. How would you suggest this is standardised? To avoid double counting carbon for example, Samsung accounting for the carbon in generating their product, and then Amazon counting it again when selling the product?

RevealNews4 karma

Good question. This is all standardized through the GHG Protocol, which many companies follow (and Amazon says it does) to account for carbon emissions (https://ghgprotocol.org/). It’s definitely true that a company like Amazon would count some emissions that a supplier to Amazon would count as well. Same idea as companies counting the emissions from the electricity they use, and those emissions also getting counted by the companies that generate the electricity. It serves a purpose because all of those companies are jointly responsible, and, in the case of a supply chain, a retailer can put pressure on suppliers to account for and reduce their emissions and that benefits the carbon footprints of both the suppliers and the retailers (and the world).
What you can’t do is add up every company’s footprint and determine that’s the overall emissions for a particular country or region - that doesn’t work because of the double counting. But for companies disclosing, there is no penalty for having a bigger footprint – it just means accurately measuring a company’s risk and responsibility.

HothHanSolo1 karma

There are various efforts around the world to sue fossil fuel companies for the damage they knowingly caused to people and the environment.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the public perception of this approach. How do you think people feel about this use of legal mechanisms to influence corporate practices?

RevealNews5 karma

That’s a public perception question and it probably really depends on what people you’re talking about and how they think about climate change, the role of corporations, the use of lawsuits, etc. What do *you* think? (Also, I’ll just throw this out there, a new documentary series on the fossil fuel industry’s culpability for where we are now: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-power-of-big-oil/)