Buying Green Online - Gasoline Saver Or Climate Bigfoot?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.10.08
With gasoline prices rising so, we expect consumers to increasingly shop online to reduce their personal climate "footprint" and save money. Especially if the green products selection is good.
To explore this question a bit, we checked out the Amazon green product listing where one can find many of the familiar "green" items and then some. A total of 713 items were "tagged" as green by customers. Click and scroll, click and scroll.
Wait a minute...what on earth is "green" about the Watts Premier Hot Water Recirculation Pump, Blue #500800? Turns out it's an electric circulator pump that keeps hot pipes from the far off hot water tank constantly flowing, so when one turns on a distant faucet or shower it gets "hot" quickly.
A reader pointed out that the device "saves water". Right - while running a motor constantly and transferring a ton of heat from the plumbing to the home interior. Amazingly no commenting customers bothered to point out the alternative of an "on demand" hot water heater which saves water and energy.
A bit more general issue emerged after several screens worth. Is it really good for the planet to buy laundry detergent or organic breakfast cereal or chocolate milk, mail order? Well, maybe, if the customer lives far out in the country - more than a bike ride from a Whole Foods. But we're not sure. Are customers even thinking about that?
There's some constructive looking Amazon operating site case studies described here.
Ironically, Amazon sells several books like this one: Public Policies for Environmental Protection. Yet there is no corporate policy statement to be found about the environment or climate change on the website.
There also is a PDF download link for a somewhat dated looking academic publication on the pros and cons of E-commerce (when was the last time you heard that term?) from which we excerpted this sentence.
E-commerce logistics systems involve more reliance upon airfreight service than truck or rail modes. Airfreight requires much higher energy and fuel usage, with corresponding large air pollution emissions.We are left to muse about how the fuel saving trade-offs will play in an era of $200 a barrel oil. Very likely, the days of heavy reliance on air freight and 'next day delivery' are limited. We will all have to become more patient.
Wouldn't it be nice to see a carbon footprint estimate for each shipping method choice? Perhaps an offset purchase option? Until then, remember...it's a jungle out there.
Image credit::Ystradyfodwg Monthly, Amazon Jungle
I thought about this just recently, as well. It's hard to calculate whether ordering online (saving the consumer fuel/time) was better for the environment than just planning your shopping more carefully (going to a mall for one-stop shopping, perhaps?). Depending on where it gets shipped from, you're talking air-freight, then a tractor-trailer, then either a FedEx or UPS truck to get it to your house. Sounds like more fuel than just driving into town to pick it up yourself...
I don't know about the "on demand" hot water heater but we have a similar pump like the one described. It's installed under the sink in the bathroom that's furthest from the hot water heater. When we need hot water in that bathroom, we push a button which turns on the pump and calls up the hot water. The pump only runs for about 2-3 minutes when we need the hot water. This saves us water and electricity, since the pump is not always running.
Here we go again
Every one is focus on the problem. Energy which is good. However no seams to realize that there is no one great single cuase other than the consumer being us. That is the only solution is US but we seam to miss the point that it takes individul acts to make a diverance. and that as each one of us make a change it will add up to a total change. Kathy's hot water is one peice, and Roberts awarness of where he is purchasing products from is another piece but together with a thousand more just like them it they will solve our gluttony.
Bill, you're right, every little bit helps. Especially when you consider the multiplier effects. But not all impacts are the same. If we tackle the bigger problems first and foremost (say, the use of air freight and other fuel and carbon intensive activities) we'll do more, faster. And the multiplier effects will be even greater.
Netflix a while back made an effort to ship movies from the closest distribution center possible in order to save money and be more energy efficient. Customers should encourage amazon to do the same. I know when I order used books off of amazon, I find the seller closest to me, this seems to help a bit.
A poster said... "Depending on where it gets shipped from, you're talking air-freight, then a tractor-trailer, then either a FedEx or UPS truck to get it to your house. Sounds like more fuel than just driving into town to pick it up yourself..."
It's more fuel only if you assume that it took no fuel to deliver the item to your town in the first place.
It's far more efficient for a fully loaded truck with last-mile route optimization to make the delivery to 100 adjacent houses, than for 100 people to get into their empty Land Rovers, each drive a mile to the store and back, in order to transport a CD or a loaf of bread or some diapers to their home.
Internet orders are basically equivalent to carpools for groceries (or books, or clothes, or whatever).
Water circulation is "all ok" in cold countries with electric heating: All excess heat saves in electricity bill. Better insulation and you don't even need separate heating systems, just heating with "waste heat".
It's not that I haven't thought about this issue. It's just that, if a product that is purchased online and shipped from a great distance helps save a great amount of energy and/or resources or prevents a great deal of waste (in the long run), then it's worth it. It's better to buy a reusable Chicobag online and use it whenever you're in a brick-and-mortar store than to ask for a plastic bag each time. It's better to purchase .5 GPM faucet aerators online if your local hardware stores only carry 2.25 GPM faucet aerators. It's better to purchase menstrual cups, reusable pads, safety razors, etc...online than purchase their disposable counterparts again and again and again. Remember, even were you to purchase these items in a brick-and-mortar store, they've probably been shipped from great distances to that location as well.
That said, many of these small-eco items are being shipped in unnecessarily large or bulky packaging; not very environmentally sound!
And how exactly does the orginal poster think everything gets to Walmart in the first place?
And how much does it take to build that Walmart?
And the parking lot?
And heat and cool it?
And the extra roads for the extra traffic?
And what happens to all the crap that is made and shipped and stocked on speculation but not sold?
How many times have you seen people buy stuff they don't really want because it was in stock? Then they're not happy and end up replacing it?