Every week seems to bring a new wave of artificial intelligence (AI)— developments—from major corporate investments to international alliances, like the newly announced U.S.-U.K. partnership. But amid the constant stream of headlines, a critical piece is being overlooked.
Today, two of the most urgent global conversations—the acceleration of climate change and rapid growth of AI—can be clouded by concerns of risk and unintended consequences. When we focus only on the potential risks such as job disruption, or soaring energy demands, we miss the chance to thoroughly investigate and invest in the opportunities.
There is no doubt that the challenges are real, and companies like Amazon are actively working to address them. Yet when we view them together, the two don’t simply compound. They intersect in ways that can spark innovation, offering the U.S. a unique opportunity to lead by harnessing AI as a force for climate progress at the speed and scale required.
The technology is already available. From Amazon Nova to Anthropic’s Claude and other cutting-edge foundation models, the tools to tackle complex sustainability challenges already exist. The next step is encouraging adoption. With AI advancing at remarkable speed, we need stronger systems for sharing how these tools can be applied—so their benefits can scale faster and serve the broader public good.
That’s why we developed a framework we call “3D Sustainability”, which identifies three core ways AI is already making an impact: Digitizing data, Discovering insights, and Delivering breakthroughs.
When deployed in real-world systems, AI transforms climate action from incremental to exponential—optimizing energy use, accelerating materials discovery, improving agricultural efficiency, and strengthening supply chains.
AI is the force multiplier that sustainability efforts have desperately needed.
Digitizing: Transforming data for business value
Climate initiatives have long faced criticism for their cost and scale barriers—requiring extensive resources to hire specialized teams just to crunch numbers before making any operational business changes or providing any public disclosures.
At Amazon, we processed 15 billion carbon-related data points in 2024 alone. Thanks to AI, our team can now compress what was once months of scientific analysis into minutes. The result? Over 4,000 comprehensive product lifecycle assessments (LCA) completed in a single quarter.
Where a T-shirt manufacturer once faced months of costly analysis to understand the environmental impacts of production, our scientists now estimate AI can complete this “lifecycle analysis” work in just 17 minutes—a transformation that makes sustainability data accessible to businesses of any size. Applied across millions of products globally, AI can eliminate what has always been the first barrier to climate action: the prohibitive cost of simply knowing where to begin.
The business case is clear: companies using AI to digitize sustainability and emissions data can simultaneously have a better understanding of their sustainability footprint and identify cost-saving efficiencies throughout their operations.
Discovery: There are sustainability problems only AI can see
AI doesn’t just analyze data—it uncovers what humans miss. It can align operations with carbon-free energy availability, flag inefficiencies and risks across supply chains, and even connect key environmental and human rights risks.
At Amazon, AI help us to identify damaged products before something ships, helps customers to find better-fitting clothes on the first try, and recommends right-sized packaging—helping avoid over 4.2 million metric tons of excess packaging material since 2015.
In one of our buildings, AI recently identified an underground water leak after it analyzed metering data and noticed the site was using more water than usual. By fixing the valve, the AI tool helped prevent 9 million gallons of water from being lost per year.
The lesson: AI can spot small inefficiencies that scale into massive savings.
Delivery: AI is catalyzing the delivery of entirely new pathways for decarbonization
AI isn’t just speeding up climate solutions—it’s unlocking possibilities we couldn’t reach before.
Generative models can design novel carbon-capture materials. Agentic AI can simulate resilient agricultural systems. Across energy, packaging, cooling, transportation, and the built environment, AI is accelerating discovery in entirely new ways.
What once took years in the lab can now be modeled, tested, and refined in months. Startups are using AI to invent better batteries, engineer next-gen fuels, and uncover circular materials.
We don’t know what we don’t know when it comes to potential climate solutions. But AI can help us find them—and fast.
Doom and gloom narratives surrounding both climate and AI are understandable but wholly incomplete. AI—used responsibly—is not just a tool, but a turning point for sustainability. In this decisive decade we need to embrace 3D Sustainability now—the clock is ticking. Let’s use it wisely.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
Credit: Source link
