Amazon announced that its largest wind farm yet—Amazon Wind Farm Texas—is now up and running, adding more than 1,000,000 MWh of clean energy to the grid each year. Amazon has launched 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S., with over 35 more to come. Together, these projects will generate enough clean energy to power over 330,000 homes annually. These projects also support hundreds of jobs and provide tens of millions of dollars of investment in local communities across the country. Amazon Wind Farm Texas includes more than 100 turbines – each over 300 feet tall with a rotor diameter more than twice the wingspan of a Boeing 787. Amazon Wind Farm Texas is built, owned, and operated by Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE), an I Squared Capital portfolio company and a leading developer of wind and solar projects across the U.S. Amazon, LCE, and local officials and residents celebrated the grand opening of the wind farm with a BBQ event onsite. To thank and support the local community, Amazon is donating $50,000 to the Snyder Education Foundation to provide students and teachers with STEM learning opportunities. Click Read More below for additional information.

Sonoco released its 2021-22 Corporate Responsibility Report, renewing ambitious 2030 commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage. The Science Based Targets align with the Paris Climate Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming temperatures well below -2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Beyond performance metrics, Sonoco further increased packaging sustainability and recycling with the $1.35 million acquisition of Ball Metalpack in January 2022. This expanded Sonoco’s can-making franchise and sustainable product portfolio with the addition of tinplate steel packaging – the world’s most recycled substrate. Funds for the acquisition came from $1.2 billion in certified Green Bonds, one of the largest sustainable offerings to date in the U.S. packaging sector.

On August 16, OPI published on its opinion page a piece titled “The Sustainable Argument for Going Paperless” in which an executive from DocuWare, a document management and workflow software company, asserted with no factual evidence that electronic communication and document management are more environmentally sustainable than using paper. Among other claims, he wrote: “Reducing paper usage offers significant environmental benefits, such as leaving a lighter environmental footprint by conserving forests. Forest loss harms wildlife and increases soil erosion. Meanwhile, paper production, which also relies on chemicals and water – emits greenhouse gas emissions.” Is going digital really more environmentally sustainable than using paper? Your readers were recently warned (“The sustainable argument for going paperless,” August 16, Benedikt Dischinger) that there is a “Code Red for Humanity” caused by human-caused climate change, and that one response to this legitimate threat to the future of humankind is…use less paper. What Mr. Dischinger wants us to believe is that we should toss overboard the only form of communication rooted in a truly circular paper industry that relies on biobased energy, an infinitely renewable resource and some of the highest recycling rates in favor of more electronic communication, which is rooted in an industry that scours the planet for finite rare earths and other diminishing resources, relies almost exclusively on fossil fuels to meet its increasingly greedy demands for energy, and features embarrassing recycling rates.