The 40+ Sustainable Systems Inside Amazon’s Delivery Station

Buildings and construction make up 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Carbon Leadership Forum.

Amazon is working towards its goal to decarbonise its global operations through improvements in its network of fulfillment centres and delivery stations.

Its new delivery station, DII5, has been designed with more than 40 market-ready technologies to help it operate sustainably.

Sustainable construction initiatives

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, DII5 is designed to reduce Amazon’s resource use and emissions.

It features more than 170 EV charging stations outside the facility.

Amazon’s goal with the facility is to gather data on the sustainability initiatives used and how well they work.

It plans to use this data to find out which initiatives offer the right balance of cost and performance, offering insights on which technologies can be scaled globally.

Daniel Mallory, Vice President of Global Realty at Amazon, says: “We have experimented with and implemented a lot of sustainability initiatives over the years.

“DII5 continues that effort by taking a culmination of a lot of big ideas not just in how we operate our facilities, but in how we build them.

“And it’s going to help us as we steadily climb toward our sustainability goals.”

Using sustainable materials

DII5’s walls are made from mass timber, also known as engineered wood, with a foundation of lower-carbon concrete.

Mass timber is made from pieces of softwood such as spruce, fir and pine, which are laminated together, making a material that has the same structural strength as concrete and steel.

It is much less carbon-intensive to produce than other materials and it locks in the carbon that the trees sequestered before they were harvested.

DII5 uses a mix of mass timber and lower-carbon steel to support the roof and canopy that covers Amazon’s delivery vans.

The roof of the facility is made from composite wood and features heat pumps for efficient heating and cooling, which reduces the site’s energy usage.

Kristen Dotson, Principal for Sustainable Buildings at Amazon, says: “Trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere, store it in the cells of their fibre. If we can lock up that material in the building for 50 to 100 years, we’re creating a carbon ‘bank’ that keeps that sequestered carbon from being re-released into the atmosphere.

“The game-changing part around mass timber is that it’s taking a ready commodity and turning it into this structural element that can replace much of the concrete and steel that goes into a building.

“Before mass timber, we didn’t have a market-ready bio-based structural solution that was competitive with concrete and steel.”

How is DII5 cutting emissions?

Amazon has implemented multiple smart features into the delivery station to help reduce its usage of fossil fuels and natural resources.

This includes low-flow water fixtures which help maximise water conservation and reduce its dependence on municipal water.

It uses circadian lighting in its training and break rooms, which shift between day and night time, saving energy and improving associate health.

DII5 also features lower-carbon pavement and curbs, made with a sustainable concrete mix and lower-carbon steel reinforcing.

Amazon has prioritised bio-based materials in the construction of DII5, with wood studs in the place of metal ones at interior partitions and wood fibre insulation instead of fibreglass.

It used lower-carbon and bio-based finishes in its acoustic ceilings and flooring.

In addition to these sustainability measures, Amazon has added a water reclamation system to the facility.

This collects rainwater from the roof, filters it and stores it underground in a 15,000 gallon tank.

This water is then routed to the facility’s restrooms for use in the toilets.