Q: How concerned should I be about the impact of my online purchases?
The convenience of online shopping is hard to beat. But it uses a lot of energy and resources and can lead to more waste.
The transportation required for online shopping emits greenhouse emissions. Three billion trees are cut down every year to produce packaging for all kinds of things, including e-commerce, according to some estimates. The data centers required to store and retrieve orders consume approx 10 times the amount of energy of a typical house and swallow precious underground water for cooling.
Sounds bad, right? Continue reading.
Online shopping is not always the worst option. Efficiency is a big factor.
Think of it this way: A single truck delivering orders to several homes could be less damaging to the environment than several shoppers hopping in cars to drive to stores. This is especially true if people group their purchases into less frequent deliveries.
A study from MIT. even found that online shopping could be more viable than brick-and-mortar shopping in more than 75 percent of the scenarios the researchers came up with. These scenarios envisioned things like an online shopping experience with all-electric shipments and reduced packaging.
Online retailers and delivery companies are trying to make online shopping more climate-friendly. Some have embraced electric vehicles.
Amazon.com, for example, has pledged to have 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030, a move it says will prevent millions of metric tons of planet-warming carbon from being released into the atmosphere. UPS has plans to update its fleet with electric vehicles, but those plans hit a snag when the company contracted to provide the new trucks faced financial problems. FedEx plans to make half of its pickup and delivery fleet EV purchases by next year and acquire the fully electrified by 2040.
Some companies are also experimenting with robot and drone deliveries. But there are other things to consider.
Packaging and waste are also important.
Companies like Amazon have also begun to reduce packaging, which in the early days of online shopping produced ridiculous mountains of boxes, bubble wrap and other coverings for tiny items. It still happens from time to time now, even with the reduction effort. Some companies have started using more reusable, recyclable and even biodegradable packaging. But millions of kilograms of plastic from packaging still end up in rivers, oceans and landfills.
Perhaps the biggest thing: How much stuff we buy.
So, it’s complicated. But there’s one foolproof thing you can do for the planet and your bank account: Buy less stuff.
The production and use of household goods and services account for 60 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions; a 2015 study found. In the United States, more than 20 percent of emissions are directly attributable to residential consumption, according to University of Michigan researchers.
Many of these light bulbs, toasters, sweaters and other items are imported, arriving in the United States on carbon-emitting cargo ships or airplanes. The shipping industry alone is responsible for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Things to try: Buy in bulk, slow buy and bulk orders.
Climate organizations encourage buying used items or repairing broken things you already have. More and more companies are offering repair services, sometimes for free. YouTube videos offer step-by-step guides to fixing a surprising number of things. Local meetings for mending clothes the appliance repair they become a thing.
If you’re going to buy things online, there are many ways you can make your online shopping more sustainable.
Take a minute to check out the size charts and read reviews to narrow down the odds. Many studies say that online shoppers are five times more likely to return a product, which means a lot more emissions in transit.
If you are ordering multiple items, try to group your orders into one shipment. Many companies will ask if you want to do this. don’t forget to look for this option. The Better Business Bureau recommends buying in bulk to reduce packaging for individual items and take advantage of delivery to pickup points.
Practice slow purchases. Pause and think about whether you need an item. It’s easy to rush out and buy something new, but environmentalists suggest getting your dopamine fix from something completely different: Try going for a walk.