Recently, I was speaking with a die-hard environmentalist friend who called me out on claims that e-commerce is greener than traditional shopping. I had remembered reading something about this a few months ago, so I thought I’d dig it up and write a post.

Carnegie Mellon’s Green Design Institute broke down the energy use and carbon emissions of buying something from Buy.com (an online marketplace like Foodoro) versus a brick and mortar retailer. It turns out that buying online had a 35% positive environmental impact by consuming less energy and emitting less carbon dioxide.

By far, the most important factor on environmental impact is the driving to and from a retail store by the customer, which accounts for 65% of all energy use and emissions. Yikes!

Granted, these figures in the chart above are based on a set of averages, including a 14 mile round trip for consumer driving. Traditional retail could look better if people walk or use mass transportation in major cities… then again, the line for the parking lot at our local San Francisco farmers’ market always seems to be pretty full.

So are shipping carriers that much more efficient at delivering packages to your door compared to driving to the store? Consider that delivery trucks are often carrying thousands of pounds of goods at once and that they even avoid making left turns to save on gas !

Here’s a link to the full study for those interested.

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