Today's society is facing an important period of transition. To make informed choices, data and tools to interpret the world are necessary. This thesis is placed within this context: the understanding of a fast-growing phenomenon like e-commerce and its effect on the environment. This objective is pursued throughout the development of a quantitative activity-based model for the assessment of the carbon footprint of online distribution in the Italian context, in comparison to the traditional distribution. The model, created through Microsoft Excel, focuses on four specific industries: apparel, informatics and electronics, publishing and grocery. The main originality of the model is in the use country-specific data and in its cross-industry approach. According to the results of the model, the overall impact of B2C e-commerce in Italy is about 375.000 ton of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. The environmental impact per item relative to the online channel is on average lower than the one relative to the traditional channel. The highest advantage concerns informatics and electronics. In the grocery industry, the carbon footprint per item is comparable for online and traditional channel. At last, the growth of e-commerce in Italy seems to have a positive impact: a 1% increase in the penetration rate of e-commerce drives to a 0,2% reduction in the carbon footprint attributable to commercial activities.
La società contemporanea sta affrontando un importante periodo di transizione. Dati e strumenti per interpretare il mondo circostante si rendono sempre più necessari per realizzare scelte consapevoli. Il contesto in cui questa tesi si colloca rientra in questo ambito: la comprensione di un fenomeno che sta crescendo rapidamente e che ha un effetto sull’ambiente, come l’e-commerce. Questo obiettivo viene raggiunto tramite lo sviluppo di un modello quantitativo “activity-based” per la valutazione dell’impatto ambientale, in termini di impronta carbonica, per il commercio online nel contesto italiano, con un approccio comparativo verso il canale distributivo tradizionale. Il modello, realizzato in Microsoft Excel, si focalizza su quattro settori specifici: abbigliamento, informatica ed elettronica, editoria e settore alimentare. La più grande originalità del modello sta nel suo essere riferito ad un paese specifico e nel suo approccio multi-settoriale. Secondo i risultati ottenuti, l’impatto totale del B2C e-commerce in Italia è di circa 375.000 tonnellate di diossido di carbonio equivalente all’anno. L’impatto ambientale per singolo prodotto relativo al commercio online è in media più basso di quello relativo al canale tradizionale. Il vantaggio più grosso è quello riscontrato nel settore elettronica e informatica. Nell’alimentare invece, l’impronta carbonica è paragonabile per i due tipi di canali. Infine, la crescita dell’e-commerce in Italia sembra avere un riflesso ambientale positivo: un eventuale aumento dell’1% nella penetrazione dell’e-commerce risulterebbe in una riduzione dello 0,2% dell’impronta carbonica causata dalle attività commerciali.
A model for the assessment of the environmental impact of B2C e-commerce in Italy
BEGGIO, SILVIA
2017/2018
Abstract
Today's society is facing an important period of transition. To make informed choices, data and tools to interpret the world are necessary. This thesis is placed within this context: the understanding of a fast-growing phenomenon like e-commerce and its effect on the environment. This objective is pursued throughout the development of a quantitative activity-based model for the assessment of the carbon footprint of online distribution in the Italian context, in comparison to the traditional distribution. The model, created through Microsoft Excel, focuses on four specific industries: apparel, informatics and electronics, publishing and grocery. The main originality of the model is in the use country-specific data and in its cross-industry approach. According to the results of the model, the overall impact of B2C e-commerce in Italy is about 375.000 ton of carbon dioxide equivalents per year. The environmental impact per item relative to the online channel is on average lower than the one relative to the traditional channel. The highest advantage concerns informatics and electronics. In the grocery industry, the carbon footprint per item is comparable for online and traditional channel. At last, the growth of e-commerce in Italy seems to have a positive impact: a 1% increase in the penetration rate of e-commerce drives to a 0,2% reduction in the carbon footprint attributable to commercial activities.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
2018_12_Beggio.pdf
accessibile in internet per tutti
Descrizione: Thesis text
Dimensione
3.46 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
3.46 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/145070