Waiting longer for your package can cut carbon emissions

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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on TIME News or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Choosing slower shipping options when shopping online can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of deliveries, particularly by lowering emissions from the highly polluting “last mile” of logistics

🔭 The context: The “last mile, the final stage of delivery to a customer’s home, can generate up to 50% of a package’s total emissions, according to research cited by the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab
• Ultra-fast shipping often forces delivery companies to send trucks out with fewer packages and tighter routes, increasing fuel use and repeated trips along the same streets

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Consumer expectations for same-day or next-day delivery, pioneered by companies like Amazon and Walmart, have made logistics faster, but also more carbon intensive
• Modeling research suggests same-day delivery can increase CO₂ emissions by up to 15% and raise logistics costs by as much as 68%

⏭️ What’s next: Major logistics players are trying to decarbonize deliveries
• Amazon plans to deploy 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030, while FedEx aims for a fully electric delivery fleet by 2040
• At the same time, experts say consumer behavior,bundling orders and selecting slower shipping, could significantly reduce delivery emissions today

💬 One quote: “It’s important for us as consumers to sit back and think: ‘Do I really need this product tomorrow?’” - Dr. Sreedevi Rajagopalan of the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab

📈 One stat: Delaying delivery by 3–4 days can cut shipping emissions by 40–56%

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