Cyber Monday vs. Black Friday — a Carbon Emissions Comparison

The concept of Cyber Monday — when online retailers offer sweet deals to e-shoppers the first Monday after Black Friday — might have been dreamed up a few years ago as a marketing concoction, but I can’t help but think about its emergence, and the trend toward more online shopping, as a solid indicator of how broadband can help reduce carbon emissions. In general the big carbon difference between retail spending and online spending seems to be the carbon emissions from driving to the outlet to buy the goods. According to research from Carnegie Mellon University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Stanford University published in August, purchasing a CD online and having it shipped to you (both by air and road) produces fewer carbon emissions than driving to an outlet and buying that same CD. More>