Hyderabad: E-commerce has positioned itself as an environmentally sustainable option to physical retail shops, as it allows one to buy products without moving out of one’s home, thus cutting down on diesel/petrol emissions and consumption.
In a city like Hyderabad, where a major part of the air pollution comes from such transport emissions, e-commerce may have kept some cars and carbon emissions off the road.
Research done at MIT’s Centre for Transportation & Logistics, shows that offline purchases can add about 31 kg per trip to one’s carbon footprint.
In addition to the transport emissions is the brick and mortar structures that require to be set up for offline purchasing which not only add to the environmental cost but also actual cost to customer. Costs come down as e-retailers don’t have to set up individual outlets, but just one big warehouse, from where all products can be moved to the desired locations.
Sagar Dhara, an air pollution expert, says, “Urban design must be such that it brings fewer vehicles onto the roads. The focus must be to design our jobs, habits, and activities in a way that encourage people to take out cars infrequently and use more public transport.”
The MIT research, however, notes that a beginner e-shopper usually tries out or examines a product in a physical store first and then goes to the e-retailers for the cheap discounts they offer.
This practice could actually double the environmental load, as the consumer drives to the shop, and then also goes online and uses up the digital space which is run with multiple computers and networks that consume power.
Experts also say that the attractive one-day delivery offered by e-retailers can do more harm than good, as the consumer pays more to get the product immediately.
Moreover, to meet this requirement, extra logistics and transport is pushed in to deliver the product on time, instead of waiting till several items are ready for delivery.
