Does e-grocery shopping reduce CO₂ emissions for working couples’ travel in England?

Abstract

This research provides new evidence about the relationship between online and in-store shopping. This article uses data for England from the UK National Travel Survey (NTS) which covers a full week and also provides information about grocery shopping practices (online and in-store). We examine the effects of online purchases on the grocery shopping practices of working couples and their related CO₂ emissions. Our analysis reveals a substitution effect between in-store trips and online shopping combined with home delivery and a 37% reduction in household CO₂ emissions for grocery shopping. It appears that buying groceries online combined with a home delivery system makes it possible to significantly cut emissions for grocery shopping trips, or at least to offset the effects of in-store trips by the households with the highest emissions. No rebound effect is observed for other trip motives, i.e. it is not because people make fewer trips for in-store grocery shopping that they make more trips for leisure, personal or other motives.

Keywords:

• CO₂ emissions
• ICT
• mobility
• NTS
• online shopping
• SEM
• travel behavior

Author contributions

The authors confirm contributions to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Leslie Belton-Chevallier; analysis and interpretation of results: Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Olivier Bonin; draft manuscript preparation: Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Leslie Belton-Chevallier. All authors have reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Mobile Lives Forum (SNCF)