18th Mar 09
Online shopping much better for the environment
by Harry Oldfield
www.sml.hw.ac.uk/logistics
According to the results of a new university study, shopping for books, clothes and DVDs online is 24 times more environmentally-friendly than driving to the shops – and seven times greener than hopping on a bus.
Heriot-Watt University researchers compared the carbon footprint of the trip from a typical local delivery depot with the shopping trip by car and also by bus. They found that the home delivery of items resulted in much lower carbon emission levels.
In the research, it was assumed that only one item was purchased during each trip. The focus was on the final stage of the process – that being the delivery of the item to the customer’s home or the customer travelling to the shop to collect the item.
The Logistics Research Centre team at the university learned that in the average van-based home delivery 181g of emissions are produced, as compared with 1,265g during a bus trip and 4,274g when a car is used. What this means is that a shopper would need to purchase 24 items when travelling by car or seven, when making the trip by bus, to match the carbon emissions produced when one item is delivered by van.
The Logistics Research Centre director, Professor Alan McKinnon, and one of the study’s authors, noted that shopping online for single items is even “greener” than venturing out to the shops.
For more information on this article please visit news.scotsman.com.
www.sml.hw.ac.uk/logistics
Our Stories
- SuperGroup issues profits warning
- Summer bookings boost for TUI Travel
- Consumers cut back in January following Christmas surge
- BT to introduce ultra-fast broadband
- Retail veteran warns of high street death spiral
- Tesco exec who sold shares moved from role
- Tesco market share slips
- UK consumer confidence recovers
- Gary Speed talked of suicide before death
- Tesco scraps carbon-label pledge
- UK university applicant numbers fall 8.7%
- Stelios blasts easyJet bonuses
Popular Topics
afghanistan al qaeda Apple ASDA bank of england barack obama BBC british airways china david cameron Debenhams Egypt facebook george osborne Google India ipad iphone ivory coast japan Libya London M&S Marks & Spencer Morrisons nhs North Korea Office for National Statistics pakistan protests russia sainsburys Sainsbury’s South Korea terrorism Tesco Tunisia UK UK retailers UK retail news UK shopping us Waitrose Wikileaks x factorArchive
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- January 2009
