Posts Tagged ‘online shopping’

Is Working at Home or Shopping Online Really the Most Eco Friendly Option?

Sep 22, 2010 Environmentally Friendly, Working at Home

A part of what I love about working at home is that it’s so eco friendly. I don’t have to drive to work. Most days I don’t drive anywhere, in fact. I use some electricity around the house, but I don’t think it’s all that much.

I also enjoy shopping online when it’s practical. I don’t do much of that, as most of the shopping I do in general is for groceries. I don’t buy a lot of things, and so I don’t often have something that I can buy online.

I found this press release claiming that it’s less eco friendly to work at home or shop online very interesting. Very much so counter intuitive, and I can’t say that I entirely agree with it, even though I don’t have numbers to back me up.

Some of the trouble is that it’s hard to tell where all of the data comes from. Are they considering all factors well enough?

From the press release:

The research reveals that people who shop online must order more than 25 items otherwise the impact on the environment is likely to be worse than traditional shopping.

It also highlights that working from home can increase home energy use by as much as 30 per cent, and can lead to people moving further from the workplace, stretching urban sprawl and increasing pollution

A part of the challenge is that it doesn’t say how they’re assuming the shopping is done or how they’re calculating the carbon cost of the shipping. I hope the full report does that. It’s hard to calculate, especially when you consider that much of the carbon cost of getting a package shipped to your home would happen whether or not you bought something. That cargo plane is still going to fly, that delivery truck is very likely to go through your neighborhood to deliver a package to someone else. These aren’t things that can easily be accounted for.

On the other hand, if you’re using public transportation to go shopping, the same could be said of the carbon cost of that shopping trip. It’s near enough there either way.

The working at home bit can be really tricky. As I own my own business, of course it’s more eco friendly to run it from home. I don’t need an entirely separate office, and I don’t have any transportation costs. My computer and so forth are things I would own anyhow. I live where I do so that my husband can get to his job.

But if you’re working for someone else, there are more variables to consider. Do they have office space available for those who work part of the time at home and part at the office? Are all their workers spread out? Does this, as the report suggests, encourage them to live further from urban areas?

I have a sister who works for an entirely virtual company. They don’t have offices, and their employees are spread out across the United States. Are they more or less energy efficient than one that requires all their employees to work in offices? I know their costs are significantly less than companies that pay for office space. Is it more eco friendly? I don’t know.

The trouble with this kind of report is that the right answer is extremely variable. It depends on where you live, what you’re buying, and so forth. I don’t think there is one right answer, although anything that makes us rethink our assumptions isn’t an entirely bad thing.

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How Do You Get Around the Poor Selection of Eco Friendly Products at the Store?

Apr 2, 2010 Eco Friendly Home

Some days it’s hard being green. You try and you try, but you just can’t find everything you need in an eco friendly variety. And too many products appear to be merely greenwashed, not really green at all.

Simply put, the selection of eco friendly, high quality products available locally sucks sometimes. It’s better than it used to be, but still not great in some areas.

But you aren’t as stuck as you think you are.

Make Your Own Cleaning Products

When it comes to things like cleaning products for around the house, you don’t need to figure out which brand to trust in a lot of cases. You can make your own.

In some areas this is incredibly easy. Just get the big size of baking soda and vinegar and you can do an amazing amount of cleaning around your house with just those two products.

You can find recipes online to make your own laundry detergent from products that are pretty easy to find locally. Be ready to experiment to find the ones that work best with the water you have in your area.

When you make your own cleaning products you don’t have to worry about the greenwash. You know what went into it. You’ll know if anything is even mildly toxic. You’ll know which products you can hand to the kids and make them do the work without worrying that they’ll taste it, no matter how young they are.

That’s the beauty of using things like baking soda and vinegar. No more locking cabinets due to dangerous chemicals. You can let the kids explore.

Shop Online

If you can’t find it locally, online is a pretty good choice too. You can find cleaning products that really are better for the environment. You can research the claims and find out which companies to believe and which are taking advantage of the lack of regulation on most green claims.

And you don’t even have to drive to get to the internet.

You can find eco friendly cosmetics that are also better for your skin. You can find organic or fair trade clothing and home decor items. You can find just about anything you might need.

Shopping online and having things shipped to your home can be more eco friendly than driving around to buy the items. The products have to be shipped to your area anyhow. Buying online means the delivery truck takes them to your door.

The disadvantage is that buying online means you aren’t supporting a local business. But especially for products that you might have bought from a big box store if you shopped locally, it’s not necessarily all bad.

You should of course shop locally for food. Local produce is one thing the internet can help you locate, but it probably can’t get it sent to your door.

Online shopping still requires a good bit of research to get it just right. But once you know what you’re doing it’s really not all that hard to find your way around the greenwash and to the products that really are kinder to the environment.

A Few Sites to Consider

EarthWaveLiving.com offers Modern Homesteading, Sustainable Living, Emergency Preparedness, and Much More…

Green Nest – More natural products for your home.

Only Natural Pet Store – Natural, holistic and organic supplies for your pets.

Greenbatteries – Offers great prices on rechargeable batteries, battery chargers, battery cases and holders.

ReusableBags.com – A critically acclaimed line of reusable shopping bags plus a growing family of smart, earth-friendly products all designed to help you reduce, reuse and save.

Ruby Pinwheels – Offers eco friendly, organic and fair trade children’s apparel and personal care items.

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