Amazon has broken ground on a delivery station in Stockton-on-Tees, UK, that will use AI to monitor emissions from all building systems.

The facility is said to represents a significant step forward in sustainable construction, combining advanced building techniques with smart technology to reduce environmental impact.

The £40m investment will create around 100 jobs in the north-east of England while setting standards for lower-carbon logistics buildings across the UK and Europe.

The 10,800m² building will use lower-carbon steel with high recycled content, produced using renewable electricity. Mass timber beams will complement the steel structure, reducing the carbon footprint of traditional building methods.

AI-powered carbon tracking will monitor emissions across all building systems, from wiring to plumbing, enabling targeted efficiency improvements. Photo-based material tracking will use image recognition to document exactly what enters and leaves the construction site in real time, helping reduce waste.

Cement-free paving will replace traditional cement with steel slag while permanently storing captured carbon within precast blocks. Carbon-storing building materials will embed captured carbon dioxide directly into concrete.

By combining local supply chains with these lower carbon materials and practices, total construction emissions are expected to be at least 20% lower than Amazon’s previous design standards.

The delivery station, where packages will be sorted for delivery across North Yorkshire and parts of County Durham, has been optimised from the ground up to reduce energy consumption. Early projections suggest that when fully operational in autumn 2026, the site will use around half the energy of a typical logistics building.

More than 1400m² of rooftop solar panels will power daytime operations. The building will run on an all-electric heating and cooling system, eliminating the need for gas. Water-saving plumbing fixtures are set to reduce water consumption by approximately 20% compared with conventional designs.

The delivery station is the first Amazon UK building registered for Living Future’s Zero Carbon Certification (v1.1), a standard that sets requirements for construction and operations. The site is also being built to the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, the new UK framework that’s helping establish consistent approaches to low-carbon construction across the industry.

After a full year of operations, third-party assessors will review performance data to determine whether the building qualifies for formal certification in 2027. Amazon will track and share learnings from this process to help refine the methodology for future industry adoption.

“Decarbonising buildings means tackling both how we build and how we operate,” said Prajvin Prakash, UK director of Amazon Logistics. “This site shows how we’re using smarter materials, advanced technology and AI-driven insights to cut emissions from day one and improve performance over the long term.”

Amazon is investing over £40m in the site, which is part of the company’s commitment to invest £40bn in the UK from 2025 to 2027, supporting job creation, infrastructure expansion, and emerging technologies including logistics and AI innovation.

Since 2010, Amazon (www.aboutamazon.co.uk) has made direct investments in UK operations of more than £80bn, creating tens of thousands of jobs in logistics, technology and corporate roles.