Jonathan Weiss, Site manager of Amazon in Berlin, Amazon Germany

1. Describe your company in a Tweet!

Amazon's 4 core principles: Focus on Customer:ing rather than Competition, Passion for Invention, Commitment to Operational Excellence & Long-Term Thinking. Amazon wants to be the most customer-focused company, the best employer & the safest workplace in the world.

2. Why are you involved as a Berlin Partner?

Amazon has been firmly rooted in Berlin for over ten years. We have around 2,000 colleagues working in the capital, especially in the areas of research and development. As a forward-looking company, we are pleased to be involved as a Berlin Partner in order to further strengthen Berlin as a technology location and to continue networking with local partners. By cooperating with scientific institutions and companies in the region, Amazon can become even more involved locally than before.

3. What topics drive you in relation to your industry?

Customer satisfaction is our top priority in everything we do. We are always developing products and services with our customers in mind. Digitisation, machine learning and cloud computing play a central role in this, but not as an end in itself, but as a means to increase customer satisfaction. With every new product or service, we focus on the extent to which they make customers' lives easier.

4. What makes Berlin special for you?

We want our locations to be where the best people are - this clearly includes Berlin. Many highly qualified people from a wide range of industries and countries live here. This makes the city attractive for us, which is why we have invested a lot in the expansion of this location in recent years.

5. Why is Berlin attractive for your company?

We want a digitally thinking environment, i.e. a Germany that welcomes the future of possibilities, looks ahead and helps shape technological change. This doesn't mean specific technologies or products, but the right attitude to face the future in an entrepreneurial way.

6. What does Berlin stand for?

Berlin is the city of (constant) change. The people in the capital are creative, optimistic and extremely diverse. These are the best conditions for an innovative company like Amazon. Berlin has been a home for us for over ten years, and we want to continue shaping change in the future. That's why we're bundling our energy at a new location in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg from 2024.

7. How does your institution implement the topic of sustainability?

Amazon uses its size to help protect the planet. As the first signatory to the Climate Pledge, we have committed to becoming carbon neutral across our global business by 2040 - a decade ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement target. We aim to achieve this by investing in renewable energy, electric delivery vehicles and reforestation, among other things. And Amazon is on track to operate exclusively with renewable energies by 2025 - five years ahead of our actual target. To achieve this, we are investing heavily in solar and wind power as well as in reforestation projects. 
In Berlin, Amazon supports the Urban Greening Programme of the environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy with 3.75 million euros to make cities more resilient to climate change. The project started in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and will later be continued in two other locations in Germany. Later, cities all over Europe are to benefit from the knowledge gathered.

Exclusive information for Berlin-Partners

Photocredit: © Amazon Germany