Uber pursuing green, zero emissions, low plastic waste goals

21 / 06 / 2023

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Uber is committed to an emission-free mobility platform by 2040 globally, with 100% of rides taking place in zero-emission vehicles, on public transit, or with micromobility like bikes or scooters.

Within this context, Uber Green has been launched earlier this month in Australia, making it available in more than 140 cities globally.

Helping drivers go electric as fast as possible is at the heart of Uber’s strategy, and the company has devoted $800 million in resources to support them.

Uber is also developing Battery-Aware Matching, which filters trip requests based on a driver’s battery level, so they can take trips that end near a charger and avoid trips that are too long for their battery. Charging should be seamless, not stressful.

Uber also updated its mapping algorithms to be more fuel efficient when possible, without increasing the time and fare of the trip. Now, its algorithms factor in things like elevation and the amount of stopping and starting at red lights–all factors that dictate how much fuel a vehicle consumes.

Its new default algorithm has helped drivers on Uber avoid 9,800 metric tons of CO2, or 4.2 million liters of gasoline in a few months’ time.

Believing in the importance of contributing to efforts to create a clean future for planet, Uber expands its commitment, with goals to eliminate emissions on all Uber Eats deliveries globally by 2040, and end all unnecessary plastic waste from deliveries by 2030.

Uber is partnering with leaders in e-mobility and charging such as Cooltra, Human Forest, Zoomo, Gogoro and Gachaco to increase car-free deliveries.

It is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund and others to support restaurants and couriers through discounts, incentives, and advocacy.

In 2020, it introduced a feature that made single-use utensils strictly opt-in on Uber Eats, helping to reduce unnecessary packaging waste. As of June 8 in select cities, consumers will see Uber’s new Green Packaging feature to easily find and choose restaurants that use recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging. As more merchants go green, Uber will expand this feature around the world.

Starting this week, Uber Eats users in Amsterdam London, Paris, New York, San Francisco and Taipei will be able to select merchants who use green packaging.

Starting with Green Paper Products, Bunzl, Enviropack and Dinovia across US and European markets and ITOCHU Corporation in Japan to support the transition away from single-use plastics and other environmentally harmful to-go packaging by the restaurant industry. These partnerships will provide Uber Eats merchant partners discounts of as much as 35% off retail prices of greener packaging solutions—and we will aim to bring similar discounts to all Uber Eats merchants in every country we do business.

Uber’s mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better and it looks forward to innovating on sustainability for years to come.