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Thursday, September 24th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
It’s probably not unreasonable to say that we’re all much more environmentally conscious nowadays. It seems improbable that we are about to turn into a nation of eco-warriors overnight, but the majority of people are quite happy to make a little effort to be greener. It is a lot of relatively small changes by a large number of people that tends to make the difference. The good news is that you can be more environmentally friendly whilst saving both time and money.
For example, Carnegie Melon University conducted a study recently and came to the conclusion that shopping online is better for the environment than the traditional method of buying from retail outlets. The purchase of a flash memory stick was used as one example and it was found the traditional retail method had an environmental impact which was 35% greater than making the exact same purchase online.
A parallel study – carried out by CleanTech – found that the carbon footprint of a standard printed book was 7.5 kg of CO2 during the course of its life. However, this figure was increased by a factor of two if the customer got into their car, drove to the store, purchased their book and then drove home again instead of having it delivered in the mail.
Approximately 65% of the emissions generated by traditional shopping methods are a direct result of the customer’s transport to the store and back again.
Not only is shopping online better for the environment – it will save you time and you will often be able to find what you’re after at a better price. You can increase the environmental benefits even more simply by choosing the right type of product.
For example, if you choose to buy electronic books instead of the conventional printed type, you will save on paper, ink and the energy used in the printing and binding process. As a rule, electronic books are cheaper than the printed versions – plus you save on gas. You can even subscribe to get newspapers and magazines delivered to e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle reader every day.
In a similar manner, if you choose to download music to your mp3 player or PC, you will save on CDs, packaging and distribution emissions. Downloading movies online, which you can now do from iTunes, Amazon and a number of other sites also has both financial and environmental benefits.
So when it comes to buying on the web, why not consider a two pronged attack. Firstly, if you can avoid a trip to the store in your car by buying online then that will generally be a good option. Secondly, if you replace physical products with downloadable ones then not only will you be environmentally friendly – but you will save both money and time.
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