BHP has partnered with Amazon to launch an industry-first pilot aimed at buying and selling environmental credits tied to lower-emissions copper.
The pilot focuses on copper concentrate and cathodes produced at Chile’s Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine. Escondida already powers its operations entirely through renewable energy and relies on desalinated water, substantially reducing the footprint of its output.
Under the framework, low-emissions copper producers create environmental attribute certificates (EACs) that recognise verified supply chain emissions reductions.
Downstream buyers can purchase and retire these certificates directly against the carbon footprint of the metal used in their own end products.
The credit scheme uses an in-setting model rather than traditional off-setting, meaning certificates apply exclusively to emissions within actual copper supply chains.
Physical copper moves through complex, multi-stage processing pathways, including smelting, refining, and manufacturing, making direct environmental tracing difficult for end users.
The pilot provides Amazon with a practical mechanism to account for the environmental impact of copper across its massive infrastructure footprint. The tech titan can retire EACs against metal utilised in power, cooling, and compute hardware, including the specialised circuit boards, chips, interconnects, and cold plates driving artificial intelligence systems.
BHP Group Sales and Marketing Officer Michiel Hovers said growing global demand for copper has heightened customer focus on supply security and verifiable sustainability credentials.
“This pilot could help develop a practical pathway to connect lower emissions copper producers with end users of copper who want credible and verifiable lower emissions materials – like Amazon, whose cloud infrastructure uses copper in a diverse range of applications with complex supply chains,” Hovers said.
By testing governance frameworks, eligibility standards, and safeguards against double-counting, BHP and Amazon aim to build a credible, scalable foundation for a broader commercial market in lower-emissions copper credits.
