> > ... or ordering something on Amazon. > Who's the biggest contributor then, corporations? If I order something from amazon, which causes emissions to be cre

> > ... or ordering something on Amazon. > Who's the biggest contributor then, corporations? If I order something from amazon, which causes emissions to be created because of the delivery truck, is that amazon's fault and not mine? It's even a harder question than that. Sure, Amazon is the one responsible for scheduling the emissions... but when you take into account the overall emissions of a purchase then it gets more interesting. --- https://ctl.mit.edu/sites/default/files/library/public/Dimitri-Weideli-Environmental-Analysis-of-US-Online-Shopping_0.pdf https://ctl.mit.edu/sites/default/files/library/public/Dimit... > Results are shown for the buying process of a toy, for customers living in an urban area. Figure 1 shows the carbon footprint of online and traditional shopping, when only the purchase step and the appropriate return rate are considered. The Cybernaut tends to have a lower environmental impact than the Traditional Shopper, as long as he does not use speed delivery. > ... > The Cybernaut’s carbon footprint is almost two times smaller than a Traditional Shopper. In fact the main component of the Traditional shopper is the customer transportation, whereas Cybernaut‘s emissions are linked to a parcel carrier, who uses an optimized delivery process. The freight transportation has a bigger impact for the Cybernaut since the item is packaged individually, which increases packaging weight and volume, and the linehaul distance of online warehouse is bigger than a traditional one. The packaging is the main component of the Cybernaut’s carbon footprint. --- The box that you get from Amazon is the largest part of the carbon footprint for the online shopper, but it is still much less than the traditional shopper driving to buy an item in a store. The difference between an individual driving to the store and parcel delivery is akin to similar arguments for solo commuters vs taking public transportation - the bulk transportation of items or people is better.