Immediacy is now a thing, and it’s a common thing that we have become accustomed to. Whether it be depositing cheques straight from your smartphone for immediate access to cash, or brewing up an instant k-cup single serve coffee, it has become apparent that our society no longer has patience (myself included).
On that note, the concept of online shopping has skyrocketed. The percentage of online shoppers within the US has increased from 37% to 61% over just the past two years. You can imagine that with the exponential growth of technology we can safely assume there will be a comparable growth in online shopping too. However, no one ever said online shopping was a bad thing, right? In fact, it can be a great thing sometimes. The problem lies in the shipping; and not only regular shipping, but quick-ship methods which tend to be very environmentally unfriendly. The more conveniently rushed option may be a priority for those getting last minute forgotten birthday presents or those desperate to rock the new apple watch, but lest we forget the environmental cost of convenience.
There are two major elements that change when going from a regular delivery to a rushed shipping method; the mode of transportation and the packaging. Let me explain:
Transportation
Whatever you decide will greatly influence the mode of transportation that is used in the delivery stream. Typically when items are categorized as a rushed delivery, they are put on a plane because air travel tends to be the fastest way to get items across the world. Now if you know that your items are being delivered from a local source, then a rushed delivery might end up yielding the same carbon footprint as something that has a regular delivery time. If you’d like to be on the safe side, a good rule of thumb is that the more time you give a company to fulfill your order, the more freedom it has to choose lower-carbon shipping methods.
However, if you’re ordering from a major big-box store, chances are you are getting your items shipped from overseas. In that case, a quick-ship choice likely could mean that your items will be travelling luxuriously on a gas-guzzling, carbon-intensive airplane. According to the World Shipping Council, airplane transportation for shipments can emit up to 470g of carbon dioxide per ton per kilometer travelled compared to a train which on average emits only 21g.
Even more so, Grist’s extensive research states that;
If the shipper has more freedom in scheduling deliveries, it can choose to hold back a delivery truck until it’s crammed full rather than send it out half-empty. And if your package doesn’t have to reach you by any particular time, the company can design the most efficient delivery route to your neighborhood.
In fact to back up that statement, the University of Washington did a study that proved that grocery-delivery services could save 80-90% of it’s potential carbon emissions if they had to option to group together customers in clusters and deliver according to location rather than if they had to deliver based on customers’ requested times.
So in summary, it’s best to allow the company freedom of choice and delivery time if you can hold off.
Packaging
Packing will differ too. Believe it or not, the faster you need your deliveries, the more intensive the packaging needs to be. For instance, packaging would typically include an overly bubbled lining and the use of bleached papered boxes; both of which cannot be recycled. Lucky for us though, some companies have taken into account their environmental impact to that extent. UPS for example has developed a two-use paperboard envelope designed for overnight shipping needs. This helps in the reduction of sourcing virgin materials, reducing the influx of packaging, and thus reducing the overall waste generated.
After all has been said and done, I think it’s apparent what choice is best. I understand sometimes impatience can get the best of us, or that life happens and we may forget things, but there is much to be learned and implemented from this…patience is a virtue.
References:
http://www.bizreport.com/2015/01/research-reveals-significant-increase-in-online-shopping.html
http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/environment/air-emissions/carbon-emissions
http://grist.org/living/two-day-shipping-free-to-you-but-how-costly-to-the-planet/
http://www.greenworld365.com/overnight-shipping-green-delivery-options/
Click to access Dimitri-Weideli-Environmental-Analysis-of-US-Online-Shopping_0.pdf
Living Sustainably 