Online Working and Shopping Increases Carbon Emissions

Despite the general belief, working from home and shopping on the Internet could actually increase carbon emissions rather than reduce them, according to a recent study.

“We hear a lot about the environmental benefits achieved as a result of working from home, however, on closer inspection it does appear that any environmental benefits are marginal,” says Professor Phil Blythe, Chair of the IET Transport Policy Panel and Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, which produced the report.

This new research concludes that in order for the online shopping to have a positive effect, people must order at least 25 items, or else the environmental impact is even worse than for traditional shopping.

The IET report looked at the ‘rebound’ effects of activities that are normally considered to be green.

Rebound effects are all the unintended consequences of policies that should reduce emissions, but actually move them somewhere else or reduce the positive impact.

People who love our planet must not despair, there are ways of ordering online and reducing CO2 emissions if some simple rules are followed.

First of all, online shopping must replace 3.5 traditional shopping trips; also you can order and have delivered 25 items at the same time, and last but not least, the distance traveled to where the purchase is made must be over 50km.

If these criteria are respected, then shopping online is good for the planet.

As for working from home, the study actually shows that this increases home energy use by 30 percent and it can lead people to move further away from the workplace, thus increasing vehicle pollution.

This report has two important messages for policy makers, says Professor Phil Blythe: “firstly, climate change is a real threat to our planet, so we must not get overwhelmed by the task and use rebound effects as an excuse not to act.

“Secondly, policy makers must do their homework to ensure that rebound effects do not negate the positive benefits of their policy initiatives and simply move carbon emissions from one sector to another.”