Climate & Nature...

Shopping locally uses less energy, right?

Not necessarily, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Institute. The study looked specifically at Buy.com's e-commerce model, and found that shopping online through that site "reduces environmental impact with 35 percent less energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions than what is produced in the traditional retail shopping model."

Obviously, this isn't going to work for every online retailer, or compare to every brick-and-morter store in your area, but still, these results are surprising.

The study found that "approximately 65 percent of total emissions generated by the traditional retail model stemmed from customer transport to and from retail stores." This could change if you drive a hybrid or ride a bike (or god forbid, walk to the store!), but it does illustrate the effect of short drives on our environment.

Buy.com also has a unique element that reduces its carbon footprint. If you order something from their site, it doesn't ship from Buy.com, but from the company that made the product in the first place. By comparison, Amazon.com maintains huge warehouses; products must first ship there, after which they get shipped to customers. Buy.com's model cuts out a step, and saves emissions.

So, while this study shouldn't necessarily cause you to change your buying habits, it does give us some ideas to think about when shopping. Every time a product moves from one place to another, it inspires the release of greenhouse gases. The fewer times it moves, the better. So if you can buy a product that hasn't moved very far or very often, you'll be doing yourself -- and the environment -- a favor.