The shift towards online consumerism has led to the reorganisation of individual behaviour, delivery services, logistics and product packaging. Responding to the number of deliveries now received by individual households, I believe there is an opportunity to reactively shape the patterns of consumption and delivery to increase efficiency and minimise environmental impact.
This would take a twofold approach; (1) initially focusing on reducing consumption of unwanted or unneeded goods, perhaps through informational campaigns, and (2) formulating a centralised algorithmic system to streamline deliveries. I think that a centralised database of orders (or perhaps a platform that users can sign up to and go through when shopping online, like a ‘green portal’) could allow for existing delivery optimisation technologies and algorithms to be put to best use. In much the same way as Uber offers shared ride services to users along the same route, collaboration across couriers (Hermes, Royal Mail, DPD), supermarket delivery services (Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose) and normal postal services could dramatically reduce the number of individual trips made and (ideally) the excess of packaging materials used. Such a streamlining is perhaps ambitious, but a centralised approach focusing on environmental impact (perhaps run through a government site) could empower consumers to demand this of companies. Potential to add a carbon tracking or plastic tracking element to this ‘portal’ or platform could allow users to see how much CO2 prospective purchases and their deliveries might incur (contributing to aim 1; building on product lifecycle footprint analyses) and to see how much they might save through a streamlined delivery (aim 2; focus on both the reduction in emissions from shared journeys and the reduction in packaging materials required). The idea of a carbon portal could hopefully deliver on both of these aims, alongside mainstreaming the importance of climate conscious consumerism and reducing carbon emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050.
If successful, such an approach could be expanded to include other services, such as prescription and medication delivery for older and more vulnerable people. Similarly, the potential to pick up someone else’s streamlined order on your journey could add another element of CO2 saving. Whether this is something that could be adopted by existing service providers, such as Royal Mail, or an entirely new private entity remains to be determined. Capitalising on the new patterns of consumer behaviour in the wake of COVID-19 is vitally important in understanding how to truly ‘build back better’, and seizing opportunities that allow for environmental efficiencies to be maximised is one way in which the UK can respond to the challenges of the pandemic and create something with positive impact.
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