Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Package giant FedEx said on Wednesday it hopes to become carbon-neutral across operations by 2040 and pledged $2 billion of "initial investments" toward the goal.
Why it matters: Flying and driving heavy stuff all over the place — FedEx says it's the world's largest cargo airline — has a substantial carbon footprint.
- Amazon, which overlaps with FedEx in some ways, announced a target of net-zero by 2040 in 2019.
How it works: FedEx said one focus will be electric vehicles.
- It hopes to have its parcel pickup and delivery fleet fully electrified by 2040, with interim goals like making 50% of new vehicle purchases electric by 2025.
- Elsewhere, it's emphasizing less polluting aviation fuels, more efficient planes, making its thousands of buildings more efficient and buying more renewable power.
The intrigue: FedEx is also looking to expand the use of natural carbon sequestration systems.
- It's giving Yale University $100 million to launch the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture that the school unveiled this morning.
- The center aims to "develop interventions that enhance the Earth’s abilities to store carbon and other methods that model natural processes," the announcement states.
How it works: Natural carbon sequestration means a lot of things. The announcement notes areas like...
- Increasing CO2 update via practices like protecting growing new forests, more efficient photosynthesis, soil and farm management techniques, boosting earth's natural CO2 absorption in rock formations, and more.