Inside Amazon's Sustainable Delivery Station Warehouse

Buildings and construction account for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Carbon Leadership Forum. This significant environmental impact is pushing companies to rethink how they design and build their facilities, with Amazon's latest delivery station serving as a testing ground for sustainable construction practices.

The ecommerce giant is advancing its goal to decarbonise global operations through improvements across its network of fulfilment centres and delivery stations. Its new facility, DII5, has been designed with more than 40 market-ready technologies aimed at sustainable operation.

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, the delivery station functions as a real-world laboratory where Amazon can gather data on sustainability initiatives and evaluate their effectiveness. The company plans to use this information to identify that technologies offer the optimal balance of cost and performance, providing insights that could inform global expansion. Outside the facility, more than 170 EV charging stations support the transition to electric delivery vehicles.

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."

Building with mass timber

The construction of DII5 prioritises lower-carbon materials throughout its structure. The walls feature mass timber, also known as engineered wood, while the foundation uses lower-carbon concrete.

Mass timber is created from softwood pieces such as spruce, fir and pine that are laminated together, producing a material with structural strength comparable to concrete and steel. The production process is significantly less carbon-intensive than traditional building materials, and the timber locks in carbon that the trees sequestered during their growth.

The facility combines mass timber with lower-carbon steel to support both the roof and the canopy covering Amazon's delivery vans. The roof itself is constructed from composite wood and incorporates heat pumps for efficient heating and cooling, which reduces the site's energy consumption.

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."

Resource conservation and smart systems

Amazon has integrated multiple smart features into DII5 designed to minimise fossil fuel usage and conserve natural resources. Low-flow water fixtures throughout the facility aim to maximise water conservation and reduce dependence on municipal water supplies.

Training and break rooms feature circadian lighting that shifts between day and night cycles, potentially saving energy while supporting employee wellbeing. These intelligent systems adapt to the natural rhythms of the workspace, creating a more sustainable and comfortable environment for employees.

The facility's external infrastructure also reflects sustainable construction choices, with lower-carbon pavement and curbs made from sustainable concrete mix and lower-carbon steel reinforcing. Bio-based materials have been prioritised throughout the construction, including wood studs replacing metal ones at interior partitions and wood fibre insulation substituting for fibreglass. Lower-carbon and bio-based finishes appear in acoustic ceilings and flooring.

A water reclamation system represents another resource conservation measure at DII5. The system collects rainwater from the roof, filters it and stores it underground in a 56,781-litre tank. This captured water is then routed to the facility's restrooms for use in toilets, reducing the building's overall water consumption from municipal sources.