Shopping and Consumer Choices
The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024
In the first `100 days of 2024 we will explore 100 climate solutions that may “empower you to evaluate, engage, and act” to address on-going climate change as an individual on your terms.
If you have not reflected on it, you may have mixed feelings using a one click option from the comfort of your home to order that item you may feel you need right now. The order is made simply, your credit card is charged, you wait a bit, a truck pulls up, and someone gets out and places a box at your door.
As a society, we do this a lot. Pause a minute and estimate how many packages are delivered in the US every year. Highlight here for the answer –> 165 billion packages shipped every year. That’s 500 packages per person.
Is it more efficient for you to grab your keys, drive to the store, and buy the item you bought online? Maybe not. Amazon uses an algorithm called Condor (Customer Order and Network Density Optimizer) to optimize the routes and schedules for their drivers that helps them save miles, money, and emissions.
“Improved coordination and efficiency could reduce up to 84 percent of emissions from e-commerce transportation!”
Heidi Roop
The environmental impact of e-commerce infrastructure remains a significant social justice issue, though. The warehouses that support the industry are often located close to disadvantage communities, exposing the residents to increased pollution like nitrous oxides, increased traffic and noise. In a report from Mother Jones, José Acosta-Córdova of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago laments that “our communities are being sacrificed in the name of economic development.”
Your impact can be programmed into the choices you make on what you order and how you choose to have it delivered. Often 1-day shipping is terrible for the climate, especially if you order items that you can get on your next trip to the grocery store. There is also a tendency to overbuy for convenience, especially clothes and shoes. Consumers order multiple pairs of shoes and clothing items with the intention of returning the ones they don’t want. This return habit for shoes and clothes – with a return rate of 56% – is costly, climate-wise.
To have an impact, be thoughtful, shop online with intention, and consolidate purchases as much as you can.
Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 47: Make More Thoughtful Online Purchases
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