Amazon Opens a “Wooden Wonder” with New Indiana Facility

The online giant has built a new delivery station in Elkhart, IN that uses wood extensively throughout its construction.

As mass timber construction continues to gain acceptance – and popularity – around the country, Amazon has gotten into the game with a new facility built mostly from wood, as well as lower-carbon materials. 

According to a report on the retail website Chain Store Age, the new building is part of Amazon’s “Climate Pledge to operate more sustainably and be net zero carbon across its entire business by 2040.”

The delivery station, technically known as D115 within the company but more casually referred to as the “wooden wonder,” is used as a waystation where Amazon packages coming in from fulfillment and sortation centers are transferred to delivery vehicles and sent out to customers.

Amazon said it prioritized bio-based materials in the construction of the facility, such as using wood studs instead of metal ones, wood fiber insulation instead of fiberglass and 43 desks made from salvaged wood. 

“We have experimented with and implemented a lot of sustainability initiatives over the years,” said Daniel Mallory, vice president of global realty for Amazon, wrote in a corporate blog post. “DII5 continues that effort by taking a culmination of a lot of big ideas not just in how we operate our facilities, but in how we build them. And it’s going to help us as we steadily climb toward our sustainability goals.” 

Amazon said its ultimate goal in opening the facility is to identify the approaches that are most effective and best suited to be implemented across its building network. The retailer is currently scaling up some of these strategies in other buildings. Firms involved in the construction of the Elkhart facility include design architect and sustainability lead ZGF, architect of record Atlantic AE, Sterling Structural, Ozinga, TimberHP and local manufacturer Arborwood.

Image: Kendall McCaugherty for Amazon

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