When people think of energy use at Amazon, they usually picture vans crisscrossing neighborhoods delivering envelopes and boxes emblazoned with the company's logo.

But most people don't realize how integral Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, has become in their day-to-day lives. They also don't realize that Amazon powers this digital infrastructure with hundreds of renewable energy projects.

Amazon wondered what would happen if all its energy was clean — not just a portion of it — then made a commitment to turning that goal into reality. The energy behind setting the strategy to meet that goal? Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Abhishek "Abhi" Sharma, lead clean energy strategist at AWS.

"Amazon is one of the largest corporate buyers of clean energy worldwide," said Sharma, a 2014 graduate of the School of Computer Science with a master's degree in robotics. "We committed to power our operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030, including Amazon's corporate offices, Amazon fulfillment centers and AWS data centers that support millions of customers globally.

"But we accelerated that, and we are on a path to reach that goal by 2025."

Read more about Sharma's work on the Engage With CMU website.