Shop locally, reduce carbon footprint

Thanks to the pandemic, online shopping has become a new pastime of mine that I am not quite proud of. However, when going into the outside world wasn’t comfortable for me, it was a lot easier to just click the “Buy Now” button and wait a few days for my stuff to come.

One thing that I came across more and more as I focused my online shopping to be more “eco-friendly” was this promise of “Climate Pledge” or “Carbon Neutral shipping.” This applied especially to one of my favorite companies to buy from: Etsy, which is a site that small business owners and craftspeople can use to sell their own wares. Not only does Etsy claim that they are “…powered by 100% renewable electricity,” but Etsy also says that they offset all of the carbon emissions produced when wares are shipped.

What does that mean though? What steps are Etsy and other companies that make similar promises taking to reduce the carbon emissions produced from their business?

For starters, how much carbon is produced by online shopping as a whole? Unfortunately, a lot. Looking at the giant of online shopping, Amazon produced 60.64 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, according to fortune.com.

That is equivalent to burning through 140 million oil barrels, which is not fantastic for our atmosphere. However, many companies, including Etsy and Apple, have dedicated their time and money to becoming “carbon-neutral.” So, are they taking the carbon out of the air themselves? Nope. These statements that they want to become carbon neutral are just empty promises.

CNBC Journalist Kristina Partsinevelos wrote about this in 2021. There are no current standards or guidelines dictating what it takes to become carbon-neutral as a company.

So, companies can just say that they are trying to become carbon neutral and do the bare minimum since there is no rule saying how much work they have to put into it.

Along with the lack of guidelines, companies aren’t even doing the carbon-reducing measures themselves. Instead of taking measures to reduce their footprint or developing the tech to do it themselves, they pay initiatives and organizations to do their dirty work.

This means funding groups that offset this growth of carbon in the atmosphere by installing carbon-neutral power sources, like solar power, trees, or other methods of cleanup.

However, the land necessary to install enough solar panels or plant enough trees to offset all the carbon buildup is way more than what people are willing to give—enough land to cover India five times over.

We can’t rely on the companies and their empty promises to reduce their carbon emissions. How do we do it ourselves?

It means shopping locally and avoiding that big, enticing “Buy and Ship Now” button.

As someone who really loves online shopping, it’s an adjustment, but one that can be done.

Why ship books to you when you can walk to your local (college campus) library? Why order your clothes online when you can head to Savers, Target or Old Navy?

Try taking the time to mosey over to a store instead of having them do the work for you, because the sad truth is that they won’t clean up their carbon mess, so don’t give them the opportunity to make it.