Executive Summary Problem

Advances in information and communication technology have provided consumers the option of shopping on-line instead of driving to a traditional retail store for many products. E-commerce has now grown from less than 1 % of retail sales in 2000 to 3 % in 2008. The alternative retail channels have some distinct differences with regard to environmental costs, including overstock inventory, physical store space, and consumer transport in traditional retail stores and individual packaging and last mile delivery for e-commerce. We build on prior comparative research and conduct a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify variations in energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the alternative systems using data received from the e-commerce industry for an electronic product. This report reviews our assumptions and analysis and provides conclusions and offer recommendations to decrease logistics LCA uncertainties. Differences in Logistics Networks The major differences between the traditional retail model and the e-commerce model are the transportation from the warehouses to the retail store or the distribution center, data center energy usage, individual vs. bulk packaging, and the transportation, from the store or distribution center to the consumer, often called the “last mile ” of delivery. These differences vary in energ