Through its e-green green policy, Rainforest Agencies is committed to a strategy of greenhouse gas emmissions reduction and environmental sustainability, and we seek to encourage our customers to consider the environmental consequences of their own actions and choices, and to be aware of the choices that they have.

As within any environmentally-aware business, our internal business processes are committed to achieving best practice in using resources wisely. Through recycling, waste reduction, energy consumption reduction and the use of environmentally appropriate products we seek to reduce the eco-impact of our own day-to-day activities.

An extension of our committment to "do the right thing" also involves raising the awareness of our customers, and the retail marketplace generally, to the environmental gains that can be acheived simply by shopping online. While traditional retailers are working towards the reduction in the greenhouse gas emmissions of their "bricks and mortar" operations, their very existence is questionable when the environmental benefits of online retail are taken into account.

E-Commerce For A Better Environment

• The Carbon Footprint Of Our Infrastructure : A physical off-line retail store needs a building with the energy consuming must-haves like display lighting, cash registers, illuminated building signage, security and safety lighting and air conditioning to suit the comfort requirements of the customer. The building would also need the fittings and fixtures associated with a "pleasant" retail environment, most of which are made from plastic and other non-biodegradable and non-sustainable materials. To maintain its financial viability the store would also need to be in a location that would inevitably require a longer distance to be travelled by management and staff, or through a less efficent urban/retail traffic network at the very least, in order for them to get to work. Then there's the materials used in the construction of the building itself....

  While an on-line retailer requires physical infrastructure to conduct business, it's more about distribution than marketing and generally requires a smaller floor area, much less of the plastic and glass frills, and definitely less of the electricity consuming display and customer comfort infrastructure. It also offers the flexibility of being in a location that can be accessed in a more energy efficent manner. For businesses of equivalent turnover and type, the physical infrastructure of an online retailer has a smaller carbon footprint than an offline retailer.

• Your Energy Consumption: Recent studies in the UK have shown that in 2007 "going to the shops" accounted for 20% of private vehicle fuel consumption and 12% of mileage travelled. The simple choice of getting onto the computer to buy something, rather than into the car, can save up to 3.5kg of CO2 emmissions. Yes, we have to deliver it to you, but it will probably be by a courier or delivery van that is driving by your house anyway. And, yes, we have to get the product from here to there, but your local retailer would have had to get it there as well.
• Product Packaging: Off-line retail is a marketing environment where product presentation is critically important. Products are dressed up for display in a variety of packaging materials that involve the use of unsustainable or non-renewable materials like plastics and acetates, or cardboard and paper products covered with chemical inks and dyes purely intended to attract the attention of the consumer at store level. With on-line retail the presentation is done on the website using only an image of the product itself, allowing online retailers the flexibility to move to more minimalist and materials-efficent packaging, and to make greater use of boring white, beige and brown recycled cardboard boxes that wouldn't stand a chance at the front-line of offline retail. Online retail is significantly more environmentally sustainable when it comes to point of sale packaging.
• Wasteage: Once a batch of product has been put onto the shop floor of an off-line retailer, a predictable proportion of that batch will be dropped, damaged, broken or simply shop-soiled. Either way it's "dead stock" that will probably end up being thrown out by the store owner - simple wasteage. Online retail does not suffer the problems of in-store wasteage, or the need to have stock relegated to the usually unsellable category of "display stock". Supporting online retailers is supporting the move towards the more efficent usage of the planet's raw materials by reducing unnecessary wasteage.
• A Paperless Business: While not completely eliminating the paper trail, online retail presents significant opportunities to reduce the amount of paper consumed within the retail process by using email communications and paperless invoicing. It's your choice whether you print it out or not. Online enewsletters and brochures also replace their physical equivalent, saving paper and distribution costs.

To acheive an environmentally positive outcome requires change, but it's not just about changing the things we do, it's also about changing the way we do them. It's an imperfect world so the product choices we make as consumers may not be ideal from an environmental perspective, but in the short term if we can influence the process that surround them then we're actively making the planet a better place to live.

Thank you for taking the time to visit this page.and allowing us to share our views with you.

Online retail - a greener choice....

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