36% of Italian consumers say they have stopped buying certain products and services because of their negative impact on the environment or society. Instead, 30 percent say they avoid products with plastic packaging.
The data emerges from recent Gfk research that shows that sustainability is now a topic of key importance to consumers, including digital consumers. That’s why sectors such as logistics and eCommerce can no longer help but consider the issue.
The first aspect to keep in mind is that sustainability has to do not only with the environmental impact of one’s activities, but also with the social and economic impact they have.
To be for all intents and purposes “green,” moreover, there are several aspects that it is important to consider so as not to run the risk of so-called “green washing,” that is, the accusation of providing a deceptively positive image in terms of environmental impact in order to divert attention from the negative environmental effects due to one’s activities or products.
Here, then, are all the aspects that need to be taken into account for an eCommerce to truly qualify as sustainable.
Pickup points and lockers to ensure sustainable transportation
With the boom in online sales and home deliveries to suffer is not only the entire logistics chain, but also the environment. In fact, as we have also recounted here, it is estimated that freight traffic contributes between 20 and 30 percent to air pollution in urban areas, effectively making the last mile the most polluting stretch with respect to the entire logistics process.
Rethinking transportation and delivery from a green perspective therefore brings not only a significant benefit in terms of lowering CO2 emissions, but also in terms of image since e-Shoppers are increasingly looking to choose eCommerce realities that can provide sustainable transportation solutions.
A green alternative to the classic home delivery model is, for example, the use of pickup points and lockers for last mile deliveries. Through their use, in fact, shipments can be better organized and efficient, ensuring 100 percent of products delivered in a single run and eliminating the problem of missed deliveries that force the courier to make a second trip to reach the final recipient.
Pickup points also pave the way for a second, equally important issue, which is the social sustainability of eCommerce.
Sustainability from a social perspective.
If the trend is indeed increasingly toward a conversion to online shopping instead of to more traditional retail, many commercial entities are forced to rethink and offer alternative services beyond those usually provided to bring them traffic.
Newsstands, supermarkets, and stores of various kinds can thus make their spaces available to receive packages and hold them until the customer picks them up. All this translates into an advantage for couriers as well, who can thus reduce and make efficient their runs by re-establishing rhythms that are for all intents and purposes more humane.
Packaging
Sustainability concerns not only the transportation of goods ordered online, but also their packaging. In fact, it is estimated that eCommerce generates packaging that weighs 3 times more than that of physical stores as well as being much more difficult to dispose of since it is multi-material. The environmental impact is therefore 10 times greater than the classic plastic bag since the packaging of each individual package produces 11 kg of CO2.
The use of recycled or recyclable materials and the abandonment of the use of plastic for packaging are just some of the feasible and indispensable solutions to reduce environmental impact and wink at the increasingly attentive needs of consumers.
How to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability
The most widely used tool for reporting to stakeholders on the results of one’s commitment in economic, social and environmental terms is undoubtedly the so-called “Sustainability Report.”
That is, it is a document prepared annually and published within the timeframe for the publication of the annual report, which can contain the social, environmental or intangibles report, i.e., a description of the value generated by the company’s intangible assets, consisting of human capital, structural-organizational capital and relational capital.
If you are an eCommerce operator and need sustainable solutions and alternatives, such as integrating your pickup points, contact us now.
