Title: Amazon's environmental impact delivers climate change concerns
Headings: Amazon's environmental impact delivers climate change concerns
The Amazon Effect
Amazon's environmental impact delivers climate change concerns
Consumers are accustomed to free and fast delivery from Amazon and other e-tailers, but the convenience of online shopping comes at a cost to the environment.
Amazon takes action
Measuring e-tail's effect on climate change
Consumerism contributes to impact
Changes could yield improvements
Dig Deeper on Amazon's Influence

Content: So while there are some parts of the environmental questions where Amazon could do better -- such as electric trucks or better routing -- they also have got to stop over-delivering [with its excess packaging] and stop getting consumers to think they need everything instantly." Amazon is not the only retailer engaged in these practices; other retailers also offer free delivery and incentives that encourage frequent shopping regardless of actual need. Lack of transparency about how free and fast shipping can contribute to excess packaging and increased emissions encourages this consumer culture, as does the retailers' push to lower prices. " [ Such expectations] create an extra cost to the environment; it's an extra cost to all of us," Thomson added. Environmental watchdogs also want Amazon -- which sells directly to consumers but also provides a platform for third-party retailers to reach these shoppers -- to do more to get these vendors to embrace sustainable practices, and tamp down on ones that sell products containing harmful components. Sonya Lunder
"There's a huge question about accountability," said Sonya Lunder, senior toxics advisor at the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy organization. While accountability extends across all online retailers, Amazon, as the biggest and thus the most visible of such companies, has become representative of what advocates call unsustainable practices. Changes could yield improvements
There are some positives in the moves that Amazon and other retailers are making.