Amazon Launches Shopping Site for Green Products

Amazon launched Vine.com, a shopping site that sells only green products, including organic food, apparel, accessories and cleaning supplies made by  companies such as Seventh Generation, Method, Brita and Burt’s Bees.

Vine reviews claims of vendors to verify products are either organic, natural, energy- or water-efficient, run on their own renewable energy, made from sustainable materials or contribute to a healthier home, according to the company. Vine also reviews ingredient lists to make sure they don’t contain banned substances, the NYT reported.

Vine is part of Quidsi, a company purchased by Amazon two years ago runs several other shopping sites including Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com and BeautyBar.com.

Vine will offer one- to two-day delivery service, maintaining the same shipping options as Amazon and the other sites it owns. Vine shoppers also will be able to add items from other Quidsi sites, including non-green products, to their shopping carts, the NYT reported.

Amazon’s shipping operation consumes large amounts of energy and the company has been criticized in the past for a lack of transparency on environmental issues. The Carbon Disclosure Project released a report last September naming Amazon as the largest company in the Global 500, by market capitalization, not to disclose its carbon performance.

Amazon plans to triple the number of items shipped under its “Frustration-Free Packaging” initiative this year, a program which pushes suppliers to cut out excessive and hard-to-open packaging. Amazon has said it hopes the program, which grew to 80,000 products last year, will not only alleviate “wrap rage,” but reduce waste and lower shipping costs.