Online commerce has been increasing for years with annual double-digit growth (+11%; 2019) and in 2020 it has become particularly important again, with annual sales of an estimated 70 billion euros and growth of 20%. Other people who prefer to shop in stores are now forced to shop online. But what impact does this have and what can we do better?
How harmful is online shopping really to the environment?
You often hear that online shopping is more environmentally friendly. However, this statement is only partially true. The studies with this result calculate the Co2 emissions for people who go shopping by car, while those who go into the city by public transport or bicycle are not taken into account. In the former case, purely online shopping is more environmentally friendly. But not at all for the second group of people.
In addition, the biggest CO2 waste of giving back is not taken into account, which is why I talked about pure online shopping above. In Germany alone, more than 300 million packages are returned every year. If the returned goods are upgraded, they must be transported across Europe, to Poland or the Czech Republic, which had a Co2 equivalent of around 238,000 tons in 2018. Unfortunately, it is usually cheaper for large companies to simply throw away and destroy the returned goods.
There are also other factors that at first glance would not be expected to be harmful to the environment. Due to the strong tendency of consumers to choose express shipping, Co2 emissions continue to rise. Suppliers no longer wait for the truck to be fully loaded in order to deliver a group load, but instead deliver smaller quantities of packages to ensure quick delivery. The result is more and more delivery trips, which are known to emit a lot of Co2.
These delivery routes are extended again if the recipient is not at home and the package has to be dropped off at a station.
Anyone who has ever ordered online knows the feeling when you open the package and all you see is tons of plastic packaging. Since the deliveries should of course be delivered safely, this requires packaging waste. That's why it's important not to place individual orders online, as they require a particularly large amount of plastic waste. This also saves on Co2 emissions because both products can be delivered to you in one delivery instead of two. Of course you should only order more if you really need it ;)
Of course, these are just a few of the factors that come into play when shopping online compared to retail. I didn't take into account the Co2 consumption, which is added to both types of consumption.
The first steps to do sustainable online shopping:
- Only order what you really need. (Both when shopping online and when shopping regularly ;) )
- Order with a standard order and forego express shipping (do you really need the T-shirt tomorrow?)
- Be there when the postman comes. Practically speaking, most online shops give you a time slot of a few hours anyway.
- Do not return! (Of course, this assumes point 1) So you have to be aware before you go shopping that you don't want to return anything so that you don't find yourself buying multiple colors or sizes of a product.
- No individual orders to reduce packaging waste
How sustainable online shopping really works
However, these are all just steps on how to make your online consumption more sustainable and not how you really shop sustainably. That's why I'll show you how you can recognize sustainable online shops on the Internet. Since these are mostly smaller companies, you not only help the environment, but also support small providers instead of large corporations like Amazon.
Before I explain how you can recognize ecologically sustainable shops on the Internet, I would like to show one of my favorite online shops. At Ultra Green you will find everything from cosmetics to household products to gifts - completely plastic-free! They also offer Co2-neutral shipping. Take a look!
To recognize a sustainable shop, the first step is to look for seals. If you computer; If you want to buy textile goods, home supplies or similar, you have to look out for the “ Blue Angel ” seal.
When buying cosmetics, you should look for the “ Natrue ” seal and for textiles, cosmetics, food or sports balls, look for “ Fairtrade ”.
To make sure that the online shop uses real seals and has not stolen them, you can click on the seal. When the homepage opens, you can be relatively sure that it is a really sustainable shop. To be absolutely sure, you can check the respective homepages of the seals on the partner sites to see whether the online shop is actually listed there.
Another aspect of recognizing sustainable shops is their shipping method. This should definitely be Co2-neutral and only use sustainable or recycled packaging. In real sustainable shops, this information should be easy to find. You can also check where the company headquarters is. If the warehouse and company headquarters are in Germany, you are assured of short delivery routes.
So now I hope you have fun exploring new sustainable online shops :)
