Shopping for non-food goods at a bricks and mortar retailer is twice as polluting as buying online, a study commissioned by Amazon claims.
Emissions caused by heating and lighting shops and by customers travelling to them are markedly greater than those from home delivery, according to Oliver Wyman, a consultancy. It said its report was independent despite being commissioned by the online retailer.
The consultancy estimated that in eight European countries the average emissions footprint of buying a non-food product from an online retailer was 815 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent. That includes packaging, warehouse energy consumption, IT costs, transport and delivery and returns.
For a product bought in a physical shop, it estimated that the emissions footprint came to 1,970 grams. Most of this stems from energy consumption from the shop, which alone outweighed the entire footprint of buying online.
Oliver Wyman said the model assumed that the customer drove to the shop in half of cases, that some products were returned, and that several products were bought in one trip. There were further differences depending on the type of product.
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Past studies have offered conflicting evidence. A study published last year found that buying from a bricks and mortar retailer had a lower emissions footprint in 81 per cent of cases compared with buying from an online-only retailer. However, the footprint of going to a physical shop was higher in 63 per cent of cases compared with getting home delivery from a physical shop.
