Tell Amazon to take this simple step for our planet
Do you shop online at Amazon? Nearly half of consumers prefer to shop online instead of in-store according to one 2017 study.1 Meanwhile, the carbon footprint of shoppers that choose quick-shipping options is larger than if we went to the store ourselves.2
Will you help us reduce this waste by signing our new petition to Amazon?
Amazon can help the environment
Amazon, the largest online retailer in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world, can lead the way to helping reduce emissions from the quick-shipping industry. We’re calling on Amazon to take this simple step: alert consumers to the greener shipping option by writing “Go Green” before their standard shipping option.
It may be a small step for Amazon, but promoting standard shipping options, could have a significant effect on our planet.
Express shipping is more wasteful than standard
You click “FREE Two-Day shipping” on your purchase of a toy for a child in your life. It’s 2018, and you can purchase gifts by clicking a button in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Two-day shipping may be a boon to procrastinators, but that convenience comes at a cost.
Your express-shipped purchase gets picked off the shelf in the warehouse, and placed on an airplane to quickly take it across the country. Then it’s put on a truck — but because you selected the quicker shipping option — it’s placed on a truck that’s only half-full in order to meet the deadline.
Sure, your item arrives at your doorstep in two days, but your carbon footprint for that package was actually greater than if you had just gone to the store yourself.3 What’s more: Standard shipping, which takes about 3-5 days, can actually have a carbon footprint almost two times smaller than going to the store.4
How you can help
We need to do everything we can to eliminate carbon pollution, because these emissions are worsening climate change, which risks important species like polar bears due to melting ice caps, and puffins who are losing their source of food due to increasing ocean temperatures.5
That’s why we’re launching this campaign — it’s simple: we want Amazon, one of the world’s largest online retailers, to give people the clear choice for the greener shipping option.
Of course, one thing we can all do is to simply not buy as much stuff. Instead of buying gadgets that will eventually collect dust in the back of a kitchen drawer, we can give gifts that are handmade from recycled goods, or take a family member on a hike and get out into nature. Meanwhile, Amazon is in a perfect position to be a leader in encouraging consumers to choose the greener shipping option.
Help us convince Amazon to promote green shipping, and move others to choose the better option.
Notes
1. Erin Jordan and Dave Parro, “Future of Retail 2017,” Walker Sands Communications, July 12, 2017.
2. Dimitri Weildeli, “Environmental Analysis of US Online Shopping,” MIT Center For Transportation Logistics, Accessed November 30, 2017.
3. Dimitri Weildeli, “Environmental Analysis of US Online Shopping,” MIT Center For Transportation Logistics, Accessed November 30, 2017.
4. Dimitri Weildeli, “Environmental Analysis of US Online Shopping,” MIT Center For Transportation Logistics, Accessed November 30, 2017.
5. “9 Animals That Are Feeling The Impacts Of Climate Change,” U.S. Department Of The Interior, Accessed November 30, 2017.