UBA Study: E-commerce with E-Vans can massively save CO2

Are sustainability-oriented customers increasingly ordering online?

Due to these insights, analysts warn that one might lose sustainability-oriented and young customers if they don't invest in online commerce. The trend toward online purchases has accelerated further due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the "Statista Global Consumer Survey," 50 percent of German citizens aged 16 and over have ordered more online due to COVID, the portal reports. At the same time, 45 percent of citizens report being bothered by the packaging waste from those orders.

"This makes it clear that the issue of sustainability is becoming important to more and more people," the authors conclude.

The evaluations show that in most cases, the biggest environmental impacts arise from the transport processes—particularly last-mile transportation—and to varying degrees, from shipping packaging, according to the UBA in the study. And it notes:

"In individual cases, other processes can also make a relatively large contribution to environmental impacts."

The continuous growth of online commerce is associated with potential consequences such as an increase in transport volume due to growing shipment numbers, increased strain on transport infrastructure, contributions to climate change, growing amounts of waste, and local environmental problems such as particulate pollution and noise, the UBA notes initially. These effects are influenced by the design of logistics processes—from storage and picking, shipping to the customer, and return shipping including processing—to the handling of returned goods by the online retailer, the type and size of the shipping packaging used, and the IT implementation of the online ordering process.

"The evaluated studies conclude that in many cases, online shopping can be assumed to offer ecological advantages (mostly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions) compared to shopping in physical stores," the UBA summarizes.

However, it should be noted that specific aspects always need to be considered and that the environmental impact of physical retail and online commerce depends on various factors that differ from case to case. There are also cases where shopping in physical stores is ecologically advantageous. For the comparison of both systems, the last mile in online commerce and the emissions from the store/business (electricity and heating) as well as the shopping trip of customers in physical retail are of particular importance. In the event of a return, further transport efforts and potentially the destruction of returned goods would be added.

"The largest contributions come in most cases from the transport processes—particularly last-mile transportation—and also, varying greatly between specific cases, the shipping packaging," notes the UBA.

In individual cases, other processes can also make a relatively large contribution to environmental impacts. If, for example, additional shipping packaging is omitted and the last-mile delivery is made with electric vehicles to a package station, the impact in these areas is reduced, while the other elements become relatively more significant.

The UBA defines the following as ecological adjustment screws and hotspots in online commerce:

• The transport processes up to the destination parcel center
• In warehouses and distribution centers
• In the last mile
• The IT infrastructure (i.e., the online ordering process)
• The additional shipping packaging.