If humanity is to pay more than lip service to the need for a sustainable environment it seemingly has no choice but to reform its attitudes towards e-commerce or face the perfect storm that could lead to the UK's road network , in particular, grinding to a halt by the end of this decade. That, at least, is the view of Colliers' UK head of research and economics, Walter Boettcher, and is one hard to gainsay.
When some 40 years ago I wrote in Materials Handling News on e-commerce potential I said that the coming of e-commerce could deliver an environmental boon by reducing weekly car journeys to supermarkets and accidents. What I had not envisaged was the way that boon would be undermined by the fatuous way online shopping has been allowed to develop, namely consumers ordering just single, small low-value items and multiple items with every intention of returning all but one, a practice today that most online retail suppliers admit can be loss-making through reverse logistics costs.
The current e-commerce distribution model has a substantial environmental footprint that may equal, if not exceed, that to traditional bricks and mortar retailing, averred Mr Boettcher, adding that the anticipated large scale repositioning of these assets into other uses could unwittingly exacerbate the problem and undermine the path to net-zero.
Colliers predicts that more than 38,000 additional HGVs will be required in Britain to satisfy existing demand, impacting all pledges to reach net-zero. This predicted increase in HGV movements risks counteracting any decarbonisation of transport seen in the shift to electrifying vehicles and highlights the challenge of balancing economic growth, our changing way of life post Covid and the increasing, pressing needs to counteract the climate emergency.
Unless consumers become more aware of how their e-commerce deliveries affect their carbon footprint so their decisions go beyond the most convenient or cost effective, then Nature's recent warnings will surely be just a mild foretaste of far worse to come.
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