How could we talk about the environmental impact of shipping without bringing up e-commerce giant Amazon? At the time of writing, Amazon accounts for 24% of online retail, peaking at 26% Q1 2020 (Davis 2020). They have one of the largest impacts on the growing e-commerce market.
It is essential that giants like Amazon are pressured to minimize environmental impact and reach carbon neutral; as it does not seem to be a priority by the actions taken by the industry. Read more for more detail.
Amazon has historically offered two-day shipping to prime customers in most locations. In April 2019, they announced their plan to move to a free one-day shipping program for all prime customers. At this point, they already have one-day shipping on more than 10 million products in more than 10,000 cities and towns (Market Realist 2019).
The move to one day shipping furthers the environmental disaster that two day shipping created in comparison with more traditional shipping mechanisms.
Consumers begin to expect that they can get items their next day, and order patterns change resulting in less consolidated orders (Shorr 2015). Less consolidated orders means more: vehicles for delivery, packaging waste, congestion in cities, pollutants in the air, and cardboard in the landfills to move the same amount of products (Nguyen 2019).
The convenience of fast shipping, especially free shipping encourages people to buy more and more often. Amazon has become an everything shop to customers, instead of e-commerce just being to supplement what cannot be found in person. Nearly all (96%) of US customers had made a purchase on a marketplace like Amazon or Walmart (UPS 2018). 55% said free or discounted shipping was the primary reason (UPS 2018).
Online shopping could in theory create a smaller carbon footprint compared to in-person shopping (Weideli 2013). E-commerce requires less overhead compared to in person commerce: no need for retail locations and less product distribution locations.
If online retailers chose to optimize their supply chains and packaging, their services could actually hurt the environment less when compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
This goal becomes more difficult when speed and high demands are taken into question; these are factors which Amazon relies on heavily to market to consumers. Current e-commerce industries rely heavily on standalone companies with contract drivers to meet the flexibility required to meet consumer demands (Weideli 2013).
Currently there is little focus on environmental issues for big e-commerce sites like Amazon. Although they have goals for the future, the present day practices do not reflect a focus on minimizing impact - but one more purely on maximizing profits.
It is important to be mindful of how companies such as Amazon can change consumer mindset and purchasing patterns. As engineers, we hold decision making power many people don't have. We can use that power to push for more environmentally friendly values to get away from the purchasing more often, more product mentality we are currently headed towards.