With millions of deliveries made every year, Amazon is clearly a significant contributor to the carbon footprint of any nation in which it operates. This is something of an issue at a time when stricter regulations on emissions and growing customer demand for companies to be greener are both a factor.

The good news for people who regularly carry out safe shopping online with Amazon is that the company has confirmed that it is making strong progress towards cutting all CO2 from its delivery services.

As well as announcing these eco-efforts earlier this week, the e-commerce giant also confirmed that its profits hit £2.8 billion last year, bolstered by an increase in sales of 17 per cent.

In terms of a deadline for doing away with carbon emissions altogether, Amazon said that it expects to be around 50 per cent of the way towards achieving this within the next decade. It also said that it will pass on more information about the kinds of schemes it is pursuing in the name of making its e-commerce and cloud computing services more environmentally friendly before the end of 2019.

Because of its sheer size and dominance, it is important for Amazon to set an example when it comes to carbon emissions. The rise of electric vehicles will mean that there will be more opportunities for it to use zero-emissions vans, delivery drones and other transportation technologies to its advantage.

Amazon has also altered its policies on packaging, reducing the amount of materials involved in shipping goods to customers. This followed in the wake of complaints from many shoppers who were vexed by the sheer volume of protective materials that were often included in boxes containing products that arrived at their doorsteps after shipping.