Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has announced an investment in battery recycling company, Redwood Materials which was founded by former Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) executive JB Straubel. Redwood is a startup extracting cobalt, nickel, and lithium from old phones and electronics to make new electric batteries from them.
Redwood benefits from Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund
The amount of funding was not disclosed, but it is part of Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund supporting technology companies contributing to reducing carbon emission efforts. Redwood was one of the three companies that benefited from the funding. In June, the Fund launched to support companies that will Amazon, which is the largest user of batteries, attain net-zero carbon.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stated that the first round of funding is for companies that were channeling their efforts in helping the retail giant and other companies accelerate efforts to reach net-zero by 2040. This will help keep earth safer for the prosperity of future generations.
Straubel established Redwood to address environment challenges
Straubel indicated that Amazon’s investment was significant, considering its commitment and size in achieving a sustainable footprint. He said that Redwood has batteries in many places within Amazon, ranging from AWS to consumer electronics and its burgeoning electric logistics fleet. The startup has been working with the retail giant in recycling electric vehicle batteries, e-=waste, and other lithium-ion batteries from different operations in Amazon.
Strauble has been working with Tesla for almost two decades until last year. He established Redwood in 2017 following a shift into EV, which is likely to cause significant environmental damage because of an increase in mining activity to make EV batteries. As a chief technical officer at Tesla, Straubel helped the EV maker design the lithium-ion battery powertrain, and as Tesla continued to grow, so did its battery manufacturing capabilities at the Reno Gigafactory. Redwood Materials has a battery recycling facility in Carson City in Nevada near the Reno Gigafactory.
