E-commerce home deliveries, referred to as the “last-mile,” negatively impact the climate. As the number of delivery vehicles increases, so do carbon emissions.
At some point, we have enough convenience and enough speed. Fifteen-minute delivery of paper towels might not actually be necessary.
What you can do:
Quick Win:
When you shop online, try to place one large order instead of several smaller ones.
More Important:
As long as there’s a race for convenience, companies are going to try to go faster. That leads to crowded streets, accidents and wasted fuel. Your community doesn’t have to be the victim of this race to the bottom. It doesn’t take many complaints to the local government for attention to be paid and standards to be set.
Learn more about slow shipping and how it helps reduce atmospheric carbon in this article, and short video, by the University of California.
(Have you seen these suggestions before? If so, that’s a good thing. Forming good Carbon Action habits takes time and repetition. We sometimes repeat things to help make habits stick.)