Digital convenience and its potential impact on our climate

Oct 24, 2024 2:08:42 PM

"Whether craving lunch or requiring delivery of a parcel, or needing groceries delivered quickly to the house for the same day, one tap on the phone now provides consumers with access to courier services."

Digital convenience and its potential impact on our climate

By Dr Mmaki Jantjies

South Africa has been experiencing seismic shifts in weather patterns, from flooding in KwaZulu-Natal to heavy snow in Eastern Cape, highlighting the global impact of climate change. How is the growing use of e-commerce, and the numerous delivery vehicles on the road, contributing to this growing climate challenge?

For many professionals and working parents, the usefulness of the platform economy cannot be overvalued. While juggling many other tasks, digital apps allow people to acquire groceries, pay for services and transport goods at the click of a button. Whether craving lunch or requiring delivery of a parcel, or needing groceries delivered quickly to the house for the same day, one tap on the phone now provides consumers with access to courier services. Consumers have grown accustomed to living in a world of "now", with a high demand placed on suppliers to deliver meals, groceries and goods at great speed. According to Heyns and Killbourn (2022)¹, about 68% of customers reflected that they now were shopping online since the impact of the pandemic in a study by Mastercard.

Thus, with the growth of online marketplace services, so has there been a parallel growth in the goods delivery industry, with motorbikes being some of the most economic options of delivery. Delivery people can often be seen navigating traffic from their motorbikes in metropolitan urban settings with the objective of meeting the immediate needs of city customers. Moreover, this boom in delivery services has created much-needed jobs, exerting a significant impact on the economy. While more and more consumers require on-demand services provided at the fastest convenience, this convenience can come at a cost to the environment and our communities.

One study by Ntuli et al., (2024)² on the part of the Green Transport Energy of South Africa concludes that while the transport sector as a whole only contributes 11% of national carbon emissions, road transport in particular contributes 90% of this total. Factors such as engine type and technology, maintenance history, driver patterns and traffic congestion have an impact on the quantity of emissions. For instance, motorcycles remain some of the lowest emission producers, yet their increase on the roads contributes to the already heavy reliance of goods transportation on the roads.

Several e-commerce operators locally and internationally have begun to factor these challenges into their fleet planning process. More and more companies are now considering how an increased number of delivery transport vehicles contribute significantly to urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Outside of South Africa, some e-commerce entities are also shifting. Indeed, various countries and organisations have taken innovative approaches towards reducing e-commerce impact on carbon emissions.

In China for example, the e-commerce multinational Alibaba has invested in electric vans to make deliveries as well as providing robots to support last-mile delivery. Similarly in Germany, DHL has made a similar electric vehicle (including e-bikes and e-cargo bikes) investment to reduce congestion and related emission and noise pollution. In 2023 the organisation reported a reduction of 436 tonnes of CO2 emissions on a yearly basis with a mission to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, other organisations such as Yamato Transport based in Japan are leveraging AI-powered route optimisation software to minimise delivery distances and fuel consumption. Yamato has achieved reduced delivery times, while reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

And in South Africa, Uber amongst other interventions is pioneering a new model in South Africa by investing in scooters that feature swappable battery packs, significantly lowering their carbon footprint. Uber also reflected on being able to attract and gain new customers who greatly value environmentally friendly delivery options. Uber also has a key mission to be a zero-emission organisation by 2040. There have been various incentives towards organisations investing in eco-friendly delivery options, these include amongst others regulation requirements such as the European Union's CO2 emissions standards, in the USA the government offers tax incentives for new fleet acquisitions.

In cities such as London there has been the introduction of zones demarcated for low-emission delivery options. Similarly in the African region, there has been growing efforts on policies to encourage sustainable e-commerce delivery such as through tax incentives on e-vehicles and the investment and partnerships in startups which produce electric vehicles. One example of a startup in South Africa offering options to traditional motorbikes or vans is Green Scooter, they design and produce electric scooters and three-wheeled delivery vehicles focused on ensuring affordable and sustainable mobility.
Indeed, with this late mover advantage in e-commerce that many emerging markets face, there is an opportunity to ensure sustainable approaches to e-commerce growth. Continuous investment on the part of organisations based locally, coupled with incentives and policies to support the transition towards green delivery options can thus provide innovative approaches to reducing the local impact on climate change.

Dr Mmaki Jantjies is an innovative leader who is passionate about harnessing the power of technology and R&D to drive change. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in Information Systems.