The One Thing FedEx Really Needs to Lose

The United States Chamber of Commerce has consistently advocated against the best interests of the American people, serving the profit motives of fossil fuel companies at the expense of the future health of our planet.

But it couldn’t do this alone. The U.S. Chamber gains its lobbying power through the use of ample donations from corporations across country. The Chamber Watch blog series, Chamber Climate Conflicts, surveys how specific corporations’ continued support of the oil and gas lobbying U.S. Chamber of Commerce directly contradicts these companies’ own messaging on the importance of environmental protection, “going green”, and continued care for the planet.

This Installment: FedEx

Well known for its overnight shipping services, FedEx has been delivering packages all across the world for more than 50 years. While FedEx is well known for its speed, there is one action that it has been particularly slow to take: fully joining the fight to keep the planet livable for humanity and ending its financial relationship with the fossil fuel lobbying U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On the one hand, the company’s many actions certainly show that it wants us to think it cares about climate. Reflecting the company’s outward substantiality strategy of “Reduce, Replace, Revolutionize”, FedEx recently announced that it was investing more than $2 billion to achieve the goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. And it has also pledged $100 million to Yale University to create a

According to FedEx’s own 2020 Global Citizenship Report, the company has seemingly already made decent strides in other areas of their sustainability agenda as well by increasing its use of renewable energy, working to replace the use of diesel with more alternative fuels, and diverting large amount of wastes from landfills through its FedEx EarthSmart Champion Program. Likewise, in FY2019, FedEx made the decision to make more frequent use of intermodal rail transport for some of its deliveries, saving a reportedly estimated 281,278 gallons of fossil fuel emissions.

But the fight to save the climate is much more than about making headlines, it’s also about making real change. And while FedEx is quick to laud its “green” spending habits, there’s one habit that deserves a much closer look: FedEx’s continued support of by serving on its board of directors. The Chamber Watch  website has already covered in detail about how even the rosiest of the U.S. Chamber’s statements regarding clean energy investments should be taken with a grain of salt given its current support for Big Oil and other fossil fuel corporations, for example by pushing for expanded drilling.

But if FedEx is actually committed to the fight for a sustainable future (and hey, $2 billion is nothing to sneeze at) then why on Earth would the company continue to support the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?

The answer is simple. It shouldn’t. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is powerless without the assistance of its member businesses like FedEx. If FedEx truly wants to keep the world safe for humanity, it shouldn’t continue to claim they support a cleaner way of doing business and still be close supporters of the advocates for the very polluters themselves.

A sustainable environment is something we all have to work together to help deliver.