Gareth Kane on Cyberspace vs Carbonspace
With continuing debate over whether on-line shopping is good or bad for the environment, Gareth Kane tries to make some sense of conflicting evidence and opinions.
This month, the ENDS report is accusing the Interactive Media in Retail Group of 'dodgy green claims' for claiming that online buying reduces the environmental impact of shopping without being able to supply supporting evidence. It looks as if Internet shopping looks like another area where the "is it or isn't it good for the environment" debate will rage ad infinitum (cf carbon offsetting, biofuels, real nappies etc, etc).
In his book Heat
The answer to this difference in opinion may come from internet marketing expert Graham Jones who was told unofficially that a whopping 80% of home deliveries fail. This leads to a constant flow of delivery vans trying to catch customers in, failing and taking the parcel back to the depot, taking it out again etc. I'm sure you have plenty anecdotal evidence of your own for this, so I won't bore you with my own tales of frustration (although getting my White Stripes tickets off Ticketmaster was a particular ordeal - they're tickets, post'em!).
Fundamentally, the problem is that the design of the service fails to meet the needs of the customer. Ideally we would all have large secure boxes to receive goods (actually I have, it's the house of the lady across the road), or, even better, we could stipulate exactly when we wanted the delivery to arrive. Is that really too difficult to organise when any backstreet garage can get same day delivery on car parts? If the so-called 'home delivery specialists' could crack this, then internet shopping could slash emissions from shopping trips.
Of course, this debate focusses only on the purchase of tangible goods. The big environmental benefit of internet shopping is the opportunity to buy products that never take a physical form - eBooks, MP3s, ringtones, movies on demand etc. While these require energy, it is almost guaranteed to be a fraction of that needed to manufacture and distribute the physical equivalent.
The potential is there - but industry needs to up its game.
Until next time,
Gareth
Gareth Kane
Eco-living Blog
Terra Infirma
