- 7 minutes ago
As AI reshapes industries and accelerates innovation, how can companies grow responsibly at scale? In this episode of How Success Happens, Amazon’s Kara Hurst shares lessons from the front lines of building for a future where technological advancement and sustainability go hand in hand. She breaks down the strategies, investments, and innovations helping Amazon scale solutions while continuing to grow - and offers practical advice for entrepreneurs to turn sustainability into a competitive advantage.
To learn more about Amazon's sustainability progress, visit sustainability.aboutamazon.com
To learn more about Amazon's sustainability progress, visit sustainability.aboutamazon.com
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NewsTranscript
00:00I think stepping up and saying, hey, we tried this, it worked, it didn't work, share one success, share one
00:05failure, and everybody does that, you're going to learn 10 things in a day.
00:09And I think that moves the world forward much quicker than anything else.
00:16Hey, everyone. Welcome to a special episode of How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at Entrepreneur.com.
00:24Today's bonus episode of How Success Happens is brought to you by Amazon.
00:29So I always ask guests on the show to define what the word success means to them.
00:36And across all industries and business and sports and entertainment, I've been hearing a common theme, which is that people
00:42aren't just about chasing money.
00:45They want to build businesses that serve their customers, their employees, and the planet.
00:51And today's guest knows all about that.
00:54Cara Hurst is Amazon's Chief Sustainability Officer.
00:58And for over a decade, she's been leading worldwide teams working on environmental sustainability, human rights, and social and community
01:06impact.
01:07So we're going to pick her brain to find out what strategies she's put into place to help Amazon grow
01:13responsibly that you can apply to your business.
01:18Welcome, Cara.
01:19Thanks for having me.
01:20Excited to have this conversation.
01:22Yeah, great to talk to you.
01:24So let me, Chief Sustainability Officer, you know, that word sustainability means something different to everyone.
01:31So I thought we could start off.
01:32What is your working definition?
01:35Yeah, sustainability can mean a lot of different things to people.
01:39I think for Amazon and for me personally, what it really means is when I think about our customers
01:45and how we want to show up in all of the communities where we live and work and operate around
01:52the world,
01:53everybody wants clean water, clean air, and access to connection with people in their communities.
02:02We want to be able to thrive.
02:05And so all of the things that we work on are really about enabling that and particularly putting all of
02:13the things that we have at Amazon on the scale that we have,
02:17the resources that we have, and the superpowers that we have into action around those things.
02:22So our teams work on things like how we protect natural resources, how we utilize and empower more clean energy,
02:32how we think about water in those communities, but also importantly, you know,
02:39how we might help to address a natural disaster with our logistics capabilities,
02:45how we might, for example, deliver food to communities who need it.
02:50So sustainability can mean many different things underneath that,
02:54but it's really about protecting people and the planet everywhere where we live and work and operate.
02:59So before we get into all the details of all that, I'm just curious, what drew you to this?
03:06What made you want to be a chief sustainability officer?
03:11Yeah, it's a windy road for I think a lot of us in these types of positions.
03:17I've worked in a lot of different fields, including politics.
03:21I spent a lot of time in nonprofits and thinking about how communities interact with companies
03:30and really had the opportunity when I came to Amazon to think about how do I build and put all
03:36of these resources to scale.
03:37So sustainability for me, I'm a systems thinker, and it's a perfect place to land because what you get to
03:44do is to think across all of,
03:46not only all of the different industries that we operate in at Amazon, but you really get to think what
03:52I call to be multilingual.
03:53So we have to work with the public sector, governments, governmental institutions, multilaterals, places like the UN.
04:01You've got to work with the nonprofit sector and all of our different partners, the NGOs that work in environmental
04:07issues or human rights issues.
04:09And then we work certainly with the private sector and all of our different corporate partners and all of the
04:13industries and businesses that we work with.
04:15So I love that kind of systems thinking and how you partner across those different domains and you bring those
04:24different partners together to think about how to solve society's biggest issues,
04:28whether that is climate change or how we provide clean water or think about how, you know, to protect human
04:36rights for people.
04:37So that systems thinking for me, I love the biggest, most complex problems, and there's no better place to work
04:44on those than the company I'm at right now.
04:46That's certainly a superpower because not many people can speak, you know, the five different languages that you just named
04:53there.
04:54So that's pretty amazing.
04:56So, you know, it's hard to argue why people would want clean water or, you know, clean air.
05:04But for entrepreneurs listening, what's a compelling business case for sustainability, like how this can actually help their bottom line?
05:13Yeah, I think that's a great question because a lot of entrepreneurs that I've worked with over the years or,
05:18you know, if you think about all of the small businesses,
05:21the majority of what we sell on Amazon is small and medium-sized enterprises selling on our retail site.
05:28They are growing their businesses and, you know, they might say, well, we don't have time to think about sustainability
05:33right now, or it's costly, you know,
05:35and that's a premium that I don't know if I can pay.
05:38But I really think that if you understand how we're working on sustainability and you understand how to serve a
05:45customer, it's actually the opposite.
05:47Sustainability can help your business to be much more efficient with its resources.
05:53That's actually at the heart of what sustainability is about.
05:57And so when you're entrepreneurial, you're usually starting to work in a constrained environment.
06:03And it's one of the things actually I love about working here is that we are asked to work sometimes
06:09within these constraints,
06:11but we're asked to think really, really big.
06:14And so, you know, those constraints actually force a lot of innovation.
06:19And entrepreneurs are the people who actually do that the best.
06:23You are tackling a problem sometimes no one else has thought about, and you're inventing new solutions.
06:30Sustainability is a lot like that.
06:32We're trying to tackle problems that haven't been solved before, and we're doing it within a series of constraints,
06:38whether they're what we might call like a planetary boundary or they're a set of constraints because that problem hasn't
06:44been solved before.
06:45But we're doing so with an eye towards how can we do this with efficient use of resources or conservation,
06:52if you will, of those resources.
06:54And when you do that, you generally are saving.
06:57So when you think about saving energy, you're saving money.
07:00Or you think about water conservation, you're at the end of the day going to save money.
07:04When you think about swapping out one material for another, if you can reduce the amount of material you use
07:10to produce a product,
07:11you can generally reduce, you know, your money.
07:15Now, right now, some of those materials, sometimes if you make a sustainable swap, they might be more expensive.
07:21But the more companies we have at scale doing this, the lower that price becomes.
07:26And that's a lot of the work that we do here when we bring companies together and we aggregate that
07:31demand to lower the price.
07:33What I've read about, you know, using AI, make sure you're giving someone the thing they really want so they
07:40don't send it back.
07:41And then you send them another one and then they send it back.
07:43And this thing goes on and on.
07:45You know, a lot of us don't think about that in terms of sustainability.
07:48But obviously, there's a lot of resources and time and energy wasted going back and forth with stuff.
07:54So I wanted to ask you, I mean, Amazon obviously operates at this, you know, unimaginable scale for most of
08:03us to think about.
08:04But for someone who's running a growing business that says, like, say, 10 or 50 employees,
08:11what's a good starting point for them to start thinking about sustainability?
08:15Well, I think AI is obviously going to empower a lot of us to go faster.
08:19We're using it in so many different parts of our business and we're using it on our sustainability team to
08:24develop tools that are allowing us to move much faster,
08:27whether it's in tools that we're coding or it's in thinking about risk mitigation.
08:32But the thing for entrepreneurs is to really start where your superpowers are.
08:37So whatever you're working on and whatever your focus area is, that's where you should start.
08:43If you are a beauty company and you're making a beauty product, think about what your customers might want in
08:50terms of the ingredients in that product or how it's packaged.
08:53Those are the kind of things that customers can look and feel and touch.
08:57And that's what they'll think about first.
08:59And that's going to be different for every single business, for every single entrepreneur.
09:02But that entrepreneur is going to know what they're really good at and what they're going to be able to
09:07kind of double down on within their own business.
09:09I don't think it's necessarily always AI, but I do think that AI is leading a lot of us to
09:14understand how we can work more efficiently and how we can get more out of every day.
09:19Yeah, absolutely.
09:20So I know that Amazon is doing a lot of things outside of the business, investing in communities.
09:30So can you talk a little bit about that and what's the thinking behind it?
09:35Yeah, absolutely.
09:36I mean, one of the things that we're absolutely passionate about is to give back to our communities.
09:42But we're also a key part of these communities where we have, you know, people who live in the communities
09:49who are part of our business.
09:51And so we are, you know, fulfillment centers, data centers, our Whole Foods grocery stores.
09:56We live and work and operate there all over the world.
09:59So we give back in many, many different ways.
10:02I mean, part of this is not only our community giving, but we show up when there's a natural disaster.
10:08We have a disaster relief program because we're good at fulfillment, logistics, and operations.
10:13So that's one way when there's a natural disaster that we utilize our logistics operations.
10:19We've, you know, involved in over 200 disasters already using our planes, using donating items.
10:28We've actually pre-positioned these items in a number of our fulfillment centers all over the world.
10:35That's a really important part of how we operate because we know when disaster strikes.
10:40Sometimes there's not time to figure out, you know, how to get things there, or that's one of the hardest
10:46things because the area is in distress.
10:49So we've actually utilized space in our fulfillment network to actually already put the items that we know if that's
10:55an area that's going to be hit by wildfires.
10:58As an example, we know what supplies are going to be needed by those first responders.
11:02So we've pre-positioned those items in that area already so that first responders can access those items in the
11:09fastest way possible.
11:10We've also utilized our technology to help in that way, and AI has played a part in that.
11:16So we can utilize AI to help provide information very, very quickly to first responders about where it might be
11:23safe to travel into in a wildfire, as an example, so that to protect their safety and the safety of
11:30the community.
11:31We've also done food delivery.
11:32So we're using our driver network to deliver food.
11:37We partner with food banks all the time to provide, you know, food that we're not going to use in
11:43our system that might be, you know, food we can't sell anymore.
11:47We give it to a food bank.
11:49But we know that it's really hard sometimes for people also to get to a food bank in their very
11:53busy day.
11:54So we're now utilizing our drivers to go out and deliver that food to people who need it, which is
12:00a great way to save time and money, frankly, for the people who need to access that food.
12:06So we have a lot of programs like that.
12:08We also invest a lot in education.
12:10We do a lot of volunteering in community, and we do a lot of upskilling because we know that, you
12:17know, working on things like our career choice and how people are going to transition into this new AI economy
12:24is really important.
12:26So there's a whole variety of ways that we're participating.
12:28I'm wondering, it's amazing, you know, you just you said there's you've responded to over 200 emergencies already.
12:37I wonder if this year or if you look back, is there anything that really springs to mind like that
12:44particularly makes you proud that you are part of helping out in a situation?
12:49Well, I think the recent events in Venezuela are really probably the most top of mind right now.
12:56And we did one of the first ever airlifts into into Venezuela.
13:00It's very difficult in a situation like that to get supplies into an area like that when that happened.
13:07So we were really proud to be able to, you know, provide supplies very quickly in that situation.
13:13Yeah, that's amazing. So we've talked about, you know, as anyone who reads the news knows, Amazon is investing billions
13:22in AI and the infrastructure behind it.
13:25Is sustainability built into what Amazon is trying to accomplish with its AI infrastructure?
13:31What's the starting point there?
13:33We build differently, and that's what we want to get across about how we're doing this.
13:37So in 2019, we committed to the Climate Pledge and co-founded that with Christiana Figueres and her group at
13:44Global Optimism.
13:45So for the whole company, we're looking to be net zero carbon by 2040.
13:50And that's a very long term vision. That's for all of Amazon.
13:54How are we going to decarbonize all of our operations across Amazon, including our data centers?
13:59But what that meant when we looked at the data centers is we have to think about building differently.
14:04So how would we use better concrete, better steel, even mass timber?
14:09How do we think about from the ground up, even the chips that we build, having those be more efficient?
14:14And then we look at, you know, things like water that's used for cooling in data centers.
14:19And we set a goal to be net water positive, excuse me, in our AWS business by 2030.
14:24And we're already 75% of the way there, which means we have over 60 water replenishment projects around the
14:31world where we return more water to the communities where we operate data centers than we utilize ourselves.
14:36We have over 700 renewable energy projects around the world where we have investments in carbon-free energy across wind
14:45and solar and now nuclear as well.
14:48And we think about how we build.
14:51So we're building efficiently.
14:52Currently, we're procuring clean energy.
14:55We're working on policies that support grid efficiency.
14:59And we're thinking about, you know, being stewards of all of that in the communities where we operate these data
15:05centers and also giving back in terms of economic development, the jobs that we create, the job training that we
15:10do, and how we support those communities where those data centers are.
15:14So all of that is really about, you know, you want, if you're going to have a data center in
15:19your community, which we all need the power, we utilize data centers every day for groceries that we might order
15:25online or the hospitals that are in that community, the education, the Ubers that we order.
15:30The data centers really support a lot of different power needs.
15:33So, I mean, you just mentioned so many different things.
15:37I can't imagine many people being able to wrap their heads around that many different things.
15:42But if there's one thing that you look back on or look forward to that you could, that just still
15:50makes you go like, wow, we did that.
15:53Is there something that springs to mind?
15:56Well, I think I mentioned the climate pledge.
15:59And, you know, we took that goal ourselves at Amazon.
16:02But when we took it, we knew that nobody does this alone.
16:05We don't, we're not able to hit that kind of a massive goal unless we bring industry along with us.
16:12And so we went out on a limb and said, please join us in this.
16:16And that was in 2019.
16:17And we didn't know if anyone would, if people would step into that.
16:22And one of the things I'm super proud of our teams in doing is now we have almost 700 companies
16:28that have joined Amazon in that commitment to the climate pledge.
16:31And that's across many multiple industries in many geographies.
16:35And they're companies of all different sizes.
16:37And I think that is a testament to both the sort of permission and inspiration and kind of action orientation
16:46that we are promoting.
16:49We want to say, this is not just a statement.
16:52It's not just sign this pledge.
16:53But we have 33 joint action projects.
16:56And we're really about, at Amazon, always saying, okay, let's take this commitment.
17:00But now let's talk about what's working, what's not working.
17:03Where did you fail?
17:04How do we think about really decarbonizing our operations?
17:08And then also open sourcing every solution that we have.
17:11So I'm so proud of the teams that have pushed into things like ocean freight, ports, thinking about heavy industrial
17:22industries and engaging those industries in a conversation to say, we really take seriously wanting to decarbonize the world and
17:30to get started on this because we want our communities to be healthy and livable and to transform.
17:37And I was going to ask, you know, when you work for one of the biggest companies on the planet,
17:44how do you define success at this point?
17:48Because it seems like, it feels like from the outside, Amazon can do anything.
17:53So what really gets you juiced up and like high-fiving like we did it?
17:57I think success for me is when the people I get to work with every day are continually inspired by
18:04what we're doing and they continue to think bigger.
18:07They want to show up and they want to say, okay, we've done all of this, but how can we
18:13keep pushing?
18:14How can we now think about utilizing AI to go further?
18:17How can we think about utilizing new tools that we have access to and we have the privilege to utilize
18:23every day to make the lives better for all the workers in the supply chains that we work with?
18:30Or how can we take this thing that we built and scale it even bigger and then open source it
18:35and give it to more people?
18:37How can we get more food to more people in communities?
18:41How can we move faster on that?
18:42That to me is success when I'm able to think about how do we enable the things that we've built
18:48to go bigger and scale into more communities and to have the people who work on our teams get really
18:54excited about their opportunities to scale those ideas.
18:58Speaking of excitement and being fired up, let's talk about energy, personal energy.
19:05What do you advise people?
19:08Because you've obviously got a lot of energy.
19:10You're all fired up.
19:11You're leading these gigantic teams.
19:14What do you do personally and what do you advise people to keep that energy up over decades of work?
19:22Yeah, I think, you know, one is surrounding yourself with people who, you know, can support that vision, who can
19:30believe in it, and who want to think big.
19:33And the second thing is really taking a moment every now and then to reflect back on what has happened.
19:40A lot of us in these types of jobs have the tendency to just kind of go, go, go, go,
19:47go.
19:47And so what I'm trying to do more of at this point in my career is also to stop and
19:53reflect and think and acknowledge some of the progress that we've made.
19:57That's not a typical thing that I would say that we do a lot of at Amazon either.
20:03We're very much relentlessly focused on the next.
20:07And so I think that kind of moment in time to stop and say, OK, we've done all of this.
20:15That's a really big milestone.
20:17And how can we build on it?
20:20That's helpful.
20:21There's a lot that's happening right now, especially as fast as AI is moving.
20:26So I think those kinds of moments are really important in the day.
20:29Give us a little homework.
20:30What's something that we could do tomorrow to help make our businesses just a little bit more angled towards sustainability?
20:39I think everybody has one solution to share and one thing that hasn't worked to share.
20:46And so if you think about things that you've tried that are working and maybe that you have, even if
20:52they're really small, what is that and how can you share it?
20:57Or one thing that you've tried that has failed, but people learn as much from failure than they do from
21:03success.
21:04And so we have a lot of forums where we can share those successes and failures.
21:10And we really want to encourage people to come forward and share those in a collective way.
21:16I think stepping up and saying, hey, we tried this.
21:18It worked.
21:19It didn't work.
21:20How are you guys tackling this?
21:22If you can do that, share one success, share one failure, and everybody does that,
21:26you're going to learn 10 things in a day.
21:28And I think that moves the world forward much quicker than anything else.
21:32I love it.
21:33That's fantastic.
21:34And what a great note to end on.
21:36Cara, thank you so much for your time.
21:38And thanks again to our sponsor, Amazon.
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