By Deirdre Doherty, Ph.D.

A study by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute that came out earlier this year found that by shopping online, as consumers, we can reduce our energy use by a third over going to the store the old fashioned way, assuming that is by car, as long we don’t opt for air shipping.  The greatest energy cost of shopping is calculated to be when each of us drives our cars to the store, whereas a shipping truck that delivers several packages in a given area uses less energy per package, like carpooling for gifts!  This study was based on data from a site that ships directly from distribution centers.

To read more about the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute study go to:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/03/the-green-side-of-online-shopping

Some green online holiday shopping tips from Green Planet Search:
1.  Ask companies to reuse, reduce or minimize packaging, or use biodegradable materials when possible, and keep any packaging to use in the future.
2.  Shop through companies that not only offer green, sustainable products, but that also have green packaging practices.
3.  Request that your purchases are not sent in plastic bags.
4.  State that you do not want a catalog included because you can access the store online.
5.  Place orders for as many items from one source as possible and have them sent in one box to save on shipping costs, consolidate and minimize resource use.
6.  Have items sent directly to the recipients when possible to save you money and minimize shipping energy.

To start your eco holiday shopping now, visit GreenPlanetSearch, the only solar-powered search portal.

With dozens of gift ideas for eco-friendly shoppers, GreenPlanetSearch is the first place to go when you want to gift green. The unique user experience that visitors have come to expect from GreenPlanetSearch is now cooler than ever with new innovative touches of interactivity and flash animation that bring the holiday spirit to the simple act of online gift shopping.

The visually-stunning, flash-based site is full of affordable green gift ideas in various price ranges — with the majority under $99.  So follow our green shopping tips and start placing your orders now to save money and the planet by using ground shipping and avoiding the last minute need to ship by air.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Green, Guest Authors, Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.