eBay’s new climate plan shifts focus to logistics partnerships and carrier emissions targets

eBay’s newly published Climate Transition Plan frames the company’s decarbonisation challenge around a single, dominant source: the delivery of goods sold by its 134 million marketplace sellers. According to eBay’s roadmap published on Jan. 14, downstream transportation and distribution account for almost 84% of the company’s total greenhouse gas footprint, and eBay is now explicitly leaning on logistics partners to deliver a large share of the required emissions reductions.

The plan, which eBay says was validated by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2025, sets a 27.5% reduction target for Scope 3 emissions from downstream transportation and distribution by 2030 (from a 2019 baseline), and commits the company to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 with a 90% cut in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. According to eBay’s corporate reporting, the company has already achieved a 92% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 21% reduction in Scope 3 transport emissions versus 2019, and has maintained 100% renewable electricity across its operations since 2024.

Renee Morin, eBay’s Chief Sustainability Officer, described the roadmap as “a natural follow-on” to cross-functional work and modelling, saying in the roadmap published on Jan. 14, “This is not a report that came out of the blue.” She added that embedding the business value of decarbonisation will drive commercial adoption: “At the end of the day, when you can show the value of sustainability, the value of decarbonizing, the value of derisking systems, then businesses are going to lean into those outputs,” she said in the same document.

Why carriers matter
eBay does not operate its own last-mile fleets or fulfilment warehouses, so the plan places carriers at the centre of its pathway to net zero. The company has published a carrier engagement guide requiring shipping partners to set independently certified emissions-reduction targets and to report annually on renewable energy, sustainable packaging and operational efficiencies. eBay estimates it will need carriers to cut emissions from delivery activities by 46% to meet its net-zero-by-2045 target.

Industry leaders DHL, UPS and FedEx are singled out because each has publicly committed to decarbonisation levers that map directly onto eBay’s priorities: electrification of road fleets and uptake of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for air legs. For example, FedEx has committed to shifting all new vehicle purchases to electric models by 2030, while UPS and DHL have announced similar EV procurement strategies and have set SAF adoption targets for air operations.

The emphasis on carriers’ SAF programmes is significant for a marketplace that relies heavily on air freight for speed and reach. DHL’s recent commercial deals underline how logistics operators are buying into SAF at scale: according to a 2025 DHL press release, DHL Express and Phillips 66 agreed a multi-year supply of over 240,000 metric tonnes of SAF across three years, an initiative DHL says will avoid roughly 737,000 metric tonnes of lifecycle CO₂ compared with conventional jet fuel. Earlier partnerships and offtake agreements with suppliers such as World Energy, bp and Neste have supported DHL’s stated ambition to reach 30% SAF use in its air operations by 2030.

Practical levers and commercial friction
Beyond carrier engagement, eBay is expanding lower-emissions delivery options on its marketplace, including incentivising local delivery, increasing use of ground shipping where feasible and encouraging slower transit modes that reduce reliance on air. The plan also recognises climate-driven operational risks to partners, such as flooding and extreme heat, that could disrupt carrier capacity and argues this shared vulnerability should spur collaboration on resilience and emissions reduction.

For B2B buyers and sellers in industrial decarbonisation, eBay’s approach offers a practical template for platform-driven leverage: set certified targets, make carrier requirements explicit, align commercial incentives around lower-carbon choices and unlock supplier investments by signalling long-term demand. Yet the plan also exposes tensions. eBay’s reliance on third-party carriers means much of the emissions pathway depends on investments and policy environments outside eBay’s direct control, from vehicle electrification infrastructure to SAF availability and pricing.

Accountability and updating
eBay states parts of the plan will be updated annually, although the company has not committed to a fixed revision schedule. The roadmap seeks to marry internal emissions modelling with external supplier engagement to create measurable progress, while the SBTi validation provides an external benchmark for ambition. According to eBay’s public materials, the company’s short-term progress on operational emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) has been strong, but Scope 3 transport reductions remain the core commercial challenge.

For industrial purchasers, carriers and logistics providers, the message is clear: meeting platform-level net-zero commitments increasingly requires coordinated capital deployment across vehicle fleets, airport fuels and route optimisation. Industry data and recent carrier offtake deals suggest the SAF market is scaling, but widespread adoption will hinge on continued commercial commitments, government policy support and the build-out of EV charging and grid capacity.

eBay’s transition plan reframes a marketplace’s climate ambition as a demand-side lever for logistics decarbonisation. The company’s success will depend less on its own facilities and more on the speed at which its carrier partners, backed by policy and supply-chain investment, can convert commitments into lower-carbon operations.