when it comes to buying stuff I'm often
wondered how did I live without online
shopping I mean literally today anything
I want is available to me 24/7 I can buy
anything anytime
in fact 79 percent of Americans shop
online this happens when they're laying
in bed having a drink
tensa actually one in five of the shops
online while we're using the bathroom
all the stuff we're buying sort of
magically appears on our doorstep but
what effect does all the shopping have
on the planet
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delivery services ship a lot more
packages now because of online shopping
since 2009 US Postal Service deliveries
have increased by 65 percent during the
holidays UPS deliveries have increased
by two hundred and sixty million
packages since 2010 now for the most
part if you compare online shopping with
say driving to the store online shopping
has a smaller carbon footprint but
there's a catch
it's only better for the environment if
you don't get rush delivery most of us
including me are choosing fastest
delivery like two-day shipping because
most of the time it's free why wouldn't
we want it right away but it isn't just
a time difference it's an environmental
difference
see all these faster deliveries means
way more trucks on the road and that's
causing more greenhouse gases and that
means more global warming when we choose
to date shipping deliveries often come
to us in multiple packages let's say I
buy some dish soap and a pair of socks
the shipping warehouse near me might be
out of this show so they're gonna fly
some in from another state meanwhile
those socks they're getting sent to me
on a separate truck also the company is
trying to get it to me quickly so trucks
are being sent out only half-full if
there was more flexibility in timing
they could fill them up all the way if
you know you have 5-day delivery window
you can wait from all the products to
come in from different sources
consolidated shipment and send it and
now you can wait for many customers
orders to come in and conciliate that
into let's say of a full truckload this
is Miguel Euler he studies sustainable
transportation at the University of
California Davis by picking the longer
delivery window I'm giving the company
more time to find the most efficient way
to get a product to me another problem
is with returns so one of the things
that companies made is offering these
reliable and fast and almost free return
option so now as a customer I can
actually try the product even if I don't
have any store to go to because if I
don't like it or it doesn't fit I can
actually return it at no cost so like
with buying clothes if I shop online and
that try before you buy option it'd be
the same as saying a delivery truck is
driving back and forth just to find me
the right stuff so what our company's
trying to do when you think about the
future of online shopping you might
imagine drones and driverless cars but
today's solutions are more about keeping
traffic moving along like with Wi-Fi
traffic lights that let truckers know
ahead of time when the light will turn
red this cuts down on idling at the
light and wasting fuel we're now
starting to transmit timing of those
traffic lights in anticipation for that
they might want to speed up a little bit
or slow down or do these certain little
velocity changes so that they increase
their chances of getting through that
light this is Matt Baume at the
University of California Riverside he's
looking at ways that trucks can reduce
their transit footprint you can
essentially smooth out your patterns of
travel and when you smooth out your
travel patterns you get those feeling
kaname benefits cities like San Jose and
Las Vegas are already testing this
traffic light technology you can save 15
to 20 percent fuel just by doing those
type of activities and on the highway
trucks are actually now talking to each
other
it's called truck platooning you can
think of it like cruise control except
it's transmitting the truck speed to the
other vehicle is falling behind now this
lends all the trucks drive in unison at
the same speed close behind each other
what they're trying to do is reduce drag
the narrow gaps they create between each
other
shields the trucks that are following
from wind resistance and so there's been
a number experiments worldwide that have
shown you know you can get 10 to 15 20
percent fuel savings by doing that type
of platooning now delivery companies
have been tackling fuel use and
emissions for decades I mean take ups
since the 1970s they've encouraged
drivers to eliminate those left-hand
turns reducing the emissions by about a
hundred thousand metric tons that's like
taking 21,000 cars off the road so there
are ways that companies can shrink their
carbon footprint but what if they were
better about changing customer behavior
like getting all of us to be more
conscious about how we shop online I've
always picked that to day option because
I to be honest
really thought about it but what if
companies offered a green option so if
you just check a box they would ship
stuff to you in the most energy
efficient way possible sure maybe it
takes a little longer but that's
actually something I'd be willing to do
I mean every now and again I agree I
might need something right away but
honestly I probably don't need overnight
delivery of socks to my front door you
probably do a lot of your online
shopping with your smart phone well
watch our other episode to see what kind
of impact these devices have on our
planet and then check out climate
University of California edu for other
global warming solutions and tips