Does Online Shopping Reduce or Increase our Demand on Petroleum?

An earlier post highlighted transportation as our primary use of petroleum, coming in at about 70% of our total usage. I immediately tried to think about what I can do to reduce that number. I already carpool or take public transit when I need to travel fast. I was feeling pretty good about my lack of driving, and then I realized – I order everything online. If someone else does my driving for me, is that any better? I did some research and came up with a few things I will be doing when I purchase online.

1. Consolidate orders for less packaging and less trips to my house

 

2. Choose USPS delivery when I have the option. They’re coming to my house anyway.

3. Buy the things online that I can't get with my bike or on the bus.

 

The research I found had was largely supportive of online shopping. Most websites and scholarly articles all quote the same data that was published in 1999 by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. 1999 seems a little too old at this point to be relevant. This think tank essentially said that its better to shop online. Even though a driver needs to bring packages to your door and there is a lot of packaging involved, shopping online is usually more efficient. The figure frequently quoted, is “shipping 10 pounds of packages by overnight air -- the most energy-intensive delivery mode -- uses 40 percent less fuel than driving roundtrip to the mall. Ground shipping by truck uses just one-tenth the energy of driving yourself.”

I did a little digging on these numbers. Their scenario assumed a 20 mile round trip errand. Living in a decently developed urban area means that I drive significantly less than 20 miles when I go to the supermarket. I also wanted to see who these people were. They’re associated with the Pew foundation and ranted about by conservative organizations that say  “C2ES is just a retread of one of the main originators of the then-titled Global Warming scam of the Clinton/Gore administration.” You can make up your own mind about whether you want to believe this data.

I found a great article on Treehugger that goes into the pros and cons of online shopping v. supporting local mom and pop shops. What it really comes down to is, don’t buy stuff. Repurpose it, make it, and buy it used if you must. Okay, that isn’t always possible. When I need to buy things online, I’ll try to follow the steps above.