Uber Commits to Emissions-Free Uber Eats Deliveries by 2040
Uber announced a series of new sustainability commitments and initiatives for its Uber Eats deliveries platform, including eliminating emissions on all deliveries by 2040, and ending all unnecessary plastic waste from deliveries by 2030.
The company also said that it has set an earlier emissions goal in European cities, targeting an emissions-free Uber Eats platform by 2030. Uber had previously pledged to eliminate emissions in its mobility platform by 2040, along with a target to have 100% of rides in electric vehicles in US, Canadian, and European cities by 2030.
Uber also said that it will aim to hit earlier sustainable packaging milestones in Asia-Pacific and European cities as soon as 2025, and that it will help restaurants in every city where Uber Eats operates to transition to more sustainable packaging in by 2030 through discounts, incentives, and advocacy.
The company outlined a series of initiatives that it is pursuing in order to achieve its new sustainability goals, including working with World Wildlife Fund and Closed Loop Partners to launch sustainable packaging guidelines, releasing features in the Uber Eats app enabling users to select merchants who use green packaging, partnering with sustainable packaging providers to provide merchants with discounts for greener packaging solutions and collaborating with Visa to help restaurants apply to receive financial support for sustainable packaging through the companies’ joint Grants for Growth program.
On the emissions front, Uber said that it is teaming with clean energy transition-focused organization RMI to scale programs helping couriers switch to greener transport modes, expanding its micro-mobility partnerships to support couriers’ transitions to ebikes, EVs and other emission-free modes, extending its vehicle partnerships including the Hertz Tesla rental program and cashback for Pro Card users on charging in North America to couriers, and investing in increased batching of delivery orders and green routing.
In a post announcing the new commitments, Uber SVP of Delivery Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty said:
“With more than 890,000 merchants in 30+ countries, alongside millions of couriers and drivers, we have a unique opportunity to help deliver a greener future. In the same way we’re leading the ride-hailing industry on the road to zero emissions, we aim to be the first global delivery tech platform to support the transition to more sustainable packaging—not just for Uber Eats merchants, but for the broader restaurant delivery ecosystem.”