With e-commerce expanding at a breakneck pace, and buyers expecting increasingly faster deliveries, it’s unsurprising that the logistics and transport sector currently accounts for roughly a third of global carbon dioxide emissions¹.
Against this, green shipping has become a prominent discussion, with shippers now expecting businesses to implement sustainable operational practices. Read on to discover insights that can help you run a carbon neutral business.
What Drives Carbon Emissions in the E-commerce Industry?
Here are six key activities that contribute to the e-commerce sector´s carbon footprint.
1. Poor packaging
Merchants frequently ship items in standard-sized boxes, with significant empty space filled with unnecessary material. Beyond generating additional waste, the package occupies more space during transit, increasing their carbon footprint. Additionally, conventional packaging supplies, such as bubble-wrap, are energy-intensive to produce and can take decades or even centuries to decompose.
2. Impulse purchases
E-commerce platforms often encourage consumers to make spontaneous purchases through discounts and rewards. While advantageous for business, increased consumption leads to higher production levels and more CO2 emissions.
3. High rates of product returns
When returns are free and easy, many consumers buy multiple items, with the intention of sending them back. This behavior , inevitably, increases carbon emissions due to the additional transportation required to return these goods.
4. Energy intensive devices
As online shopping shifts more toward smartphones, these devices require greater processing power and more robust batteries. As a result, e-commerce contributes to rising global electricity demand.
5. Vast data centers
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has led toa significant increase in the volume of digital data that needs to be processed, stored, and retrieved. This development requires large-scale data centers that consume huge amounts of energy – along with backup servers in separate locations that further compound the issue.
6. Fast transport methods
Even in this era of environmental awareness, consumers continue to expect promptly. Especially in cross-border e-commerce, this often leads to the use of air transport, which generates the highest carbon emissions among all shipping options.
Eco-friendly logistics: 9 actionable steps
These sustainable business practices will help you work towards a carbon neutral business.
1. Monitor carbon outputs
To begin reducing your online store's environmental impact, you must first measure greenhouse gas emissions. These are categorized into three distinct classifications 2: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. Scope 1 refers to direct emissions generated by your operations; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased energy (such as electricity); and Scope 3 includes emissions produced by other partners within your supply chain. Comprehensive resources and calculation tools are available on the official Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) website.
2. Offset for your emissions
Carbon offsetting involves supporting or investing in environmental initiatives, including green energy or rainforest conservation, to compensate for your company's emissions. You can offset the environmental impact of your deliveries.Always choose initiatives that are certified according to recognized international standards.
3. Go paperless
Reducing paper use not only lowers your carbon footprint but also conserves resources such as trees, ink and time. Transition to optimized digital systems and provide clients with documentation, such as their receipts, in electronic format.
4. Switch to sustainable packaging
Selecting appropriately proportioned containers helps minimize material waste and delivery-related emissions, while consolidating multiple items into a single shipment maximizes efficiency. Explore eco-friendly alternatives such as reusable, recyclable, or compostable options—like mushroom mycelium or seaweed-based components. Alternatively, if your merchandise genuinely requires traditional film wrapping, opt for biodegradable plastics. Switching to sustainable packaging not only reduces operational costs but also appeals directly to eco-conscious shoppers.
5. Offer Sustainable transportation
Selecting a transportation provider with a dedicated portfolio of sustainable solutions allows you to minimize the environmental impact of your e-commerce orders. DHL Express’ GoGreen Plus, for example, is a service designed to help businesses lower the greenhouse gas emissions generated by their shipments through the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel. This sustainable fuel alternative is produced from renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats, and agricultural crops. SAF is specifically engineered to serve as a substitute for traditional jet fuel and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80% compared to fossil fuels.
6. Optimized stock control
If you partner with dependable vendors, consider switching to Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory management (3). The core objective is to eliminate waste and increase efficiency. With JIT, raw materials arrive exactly when required for production, while finished stock arrives to meet customer demand – but no sooner. Consequently, you keep minimal inventory stored in the warehouse, avoiding unnecesary energy use for storage and preventing items from becoming obsolete. Adopting JIT can save you money, reduce waste, and increase operational efficiency.
7. Insist on a sustainable supply chain
Companies are recognizing the importance of sustainability in their supply chains. It’s not just about enhancing operational efficiency or reducing waste.. Nike, for example, has introduced a Sustainable Manufacturing and Sourcing Index, which evaluates and grades vendors based on their environmental performance (4). You can significantly reduce your carbon footprint just by partnering with like-minded vendors.
8. Launch a circular economy program
Expand your products’ lifecycle with a reverse logistics strategy. This approach promotes the recycling, refurbishing and repair of returned items (rather than sending them to landfill) – a far more sustainable and cost-effective path.
9. Minimize shopper product returns
Each item sent back to your business results in additional transport emissions. To prevent this, invest in reducing your returns rate from the beginning : ensure you provide high-resolution imagery and detailed product descriptions on your website, and consider adopting virtual reality (VR) tools to help customers visualize products more accurately.
You can also utilize parcel lockers for more sustainable returns. These allow your logistics provider to collect multiple customers' packages from a single location – significantly reducing the transport emissions.
These nine ways to reduce your e-commerce carbon footprint offer valuable insights to consider. And remember, if you decide to implement some of these measures, you don’t have to do so all at once. Instead, you can aim for gradual improvements. It’s also highly beneficial to be transparent with your customers and engage with them on sustainability issues. They may even have useful suggestions for you. Above all, regularly assess and audit your practices, updating them as technology and best practices evolve.
When you open a DHL business account, you gain access to a range of dedicated sustainable logistics solutions to streamline your e-commerce returns logistics and reduce your company's carbon footprint.
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