How e-commerce affects sustainability at multiple levels, environmentally and socioeconomically

Abstract

Ecommerce is increasingly popular and has grown exponentially in the past few decades. However, it is responsible for disastrous environmental degradation resulting from its abundant CO2 emissions and plastic pollution. This study delves deeper into the exploring global role that e-commerce has played and continues to play in climate change. Firstly, by investigating the role that it plays in the environment, then by looking at its logistics and packaging, and additionally by discussing the role that consumer perception plays in e-commerce companies’ decision making. A key concept in this study is that e-commerce harms the environment by the potentially avoidable pollution caused by its unsustainable packaging. Materials used in such packaging are often single-use plastics which are utilized excessively in proportion to the item it envelopes and contributes to the 30% of waste e-commerce holds in America. Another key result is that e-commerce popularized next-day deliveries. This exacerbates its extensive logistic network situation with an increasingly harmful use of CO2 at a global scale. These rushed deliveries increased e-commerce CO2 emissions by 68%. 

These results are highlighted in a case study on Amazon in the following ways: by looking at what Amazon has replaced in terms of packaging and transportation, and how much of it. While Amazon has made strides in reducing packaging and including electric vehicles delivery, there is much progress remaining to be fulfilled. On a larger scale, these results signify that e-commerce is growing but is still in need of improvement to grow at the pace it is while also being sustainable. The continuous and even increasing effects of e-commerce are serious. People and industries could take actions such as placing shipments together, recycling properly, using less packaging, and using sustainable materials to minimize those effects.