By Ashley V.
First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you can celebrate with loved ones safely or virtually this holiday season. While today is all about giving thanks, tomorrow is all about spending money. Black Friday is upon us. So this means many of us are on our computers, ready to shop until we drop.
However, online shopping comes at a cost to our planet. In a perfect world, online shopping should reduce carbon emissions since you do not have to physically drive to the store to buy your item, but unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Studies have shown that 12-60% of home deliveries fail the first time, so the drivers have to come back a second or third time to deliver the package, or customers end up having to drive to the warehouse for pick-up, drastically raising carbon emissions for your delivery.1 What about items that don’t fit or need to be returned? You just doubled the carbon footprint of that item by sending it back. How about second-day delivery? Speedie delivery has been shown to triple our carbon footprint with online deliveries.1 Supplier cannot wait to bundle items together if they have to get them to you quickly, and delivery vans are not being sent out full because they have a deadline.1 So, how can we make our online shopping more sustainable and less harmful to our planet? Here are several tips to help…
Avoid Rush Delivery
Don’t wait until the last minute to do your shopping. I know it is easier said than done, but opting to have your packages shipped at a slower rate lowers their carbon footprint and helps out the planet. We just have to be patient enough to wait a couple of extra days for it.
Send All Packages Together
When all the items can be shipped together, it means fewer trips for the delivery driver, thus lower carbon emissions. Plus, it comes with less packaging. Win Win!
Avoid Returns
I know that many of us are guilty of buying an article of clothing in multiple sizes and sending back those that do not fit but PLEASE STOP! Not only are you increasing the carbon emissions by sending back items, but most companies will not try to resell that item. Most companies just do not have the technology or logistics to deal with reselling returns items, so our returns often end in a landfill! Keep in mind that most of these items are perfectly fine, they just didn’t fit and now they will never be worn by someone else. Each year, 5 billion pounds of waste is generated through returns, contributing 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to our atmosphere.2
Buy for Local/Small Businesses
Now it is more important than ever to be giving back to small businesses. Instead of buying your items from a big box store, look for it from a local retailer/small business. Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday, so hold off on your holiday shopping one more day and put your money back into your local economy. It will make a world of difference to our small business owners who are currently struggling due to Covid.
Who are you Supporting?
When you shop, what companies are you supporting? Who are you giving your hard-earned dollars? What are their values? Do they have sustainable business practices? Do they pay their employees a living wage? These are essential things to think about when choosing who to shop with. Become a conscious consumer and feel good about who you are buying from and what they stand for. Learn more about this in our previous blog post, The Power of Your Dollar.
Think Before You Buy
Ask yourself these questions, do you really need this item? How often will you use it? What will happen to the item at the end of its life? Taking the extra time to think about the items you’re buying will help you avoid impulse buys and save you money in the long run. Just because it’s on sale does not mean that you need that item or even want it. Stay strong and resist the temptation.
Ask about Reduced Packaging
Have you ever opened a giant box, sifted through all the foam peanuts, plastic bubble wrap, and paper to get to the bottom, and find one small item. Yep, we have all been there. To help the planet, reduce our waste, and cut back on our plastic, ask the seller to use less packaging materials. It is as simple as leaving a note in the comment section of your purchase. What could it hurt? Worst-case scenario, they don’t listen, but best-case scenario, they use less plastic and foam, two items that are very harmful to the environment. The more people who ask for more reduced packaging materials or earth-friendly packaging materials, the more businesses will start to listen and change their practices.
Carbon Offsets
Every online purchase we make will release more carbon into our atmosphere and contribute to climate change. However, you can do something about this. There are many great ways that we can pull that carbon back out of the atmosphere and put it back into our forests and vegetation where they belong. It is called carbon offsets, and you can purchase them through a multitude of organizations. We recommend Cool Effect; they vet all of their carbon offset projects to make sure they are actually doing what they are saying they will. A simple donation to help offset the impact of your purchase can go a long way in reducing our impact on the planet.
Pick Your Date
Amazon has a feature that lets you pick a specific date each month, and that is when they will ship all your items. It makes shopping easier, all your items come at once, and you can plan to be available for the delivery if necessary, so it doesn’t get sent back. Plus, it saves on carbon emissions because the delivery driver only needs to make one trip to your house a month instead of every couple of days. We just need to plan accordingly and be patient.
Save your Boxes and Paper
This tip is easy. Save the boxes and brown paper that comes with your shipments and reuse them for wrapping presents. It saves you from buying boxes and wrapping paper from the store, thus saving you money. Plus, you are repurposing the boxes and paper into another use, thus extending their life and delaying their trip to the recycling center.
Actionable Tip: Use one or all of these tips when doing your online shopping this holiday season and know that you are doing your part to help our planet. Coming soon, a list of sustainable gift items for the holiday season. Stay tuned!
Resources:
1 – In Store or online – whats the environmentally friendliest way to shop?
Sustainable Saplings 
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