Green Grocer

The question is whether having your groceries delivered is good for the environment and the answer is yes--and if you allow for the deliverer to pick the time of delivery, then it is a huge savings.  There are a number of services available on-line to have groceries delivered--Amazon and Google are just two, with grocery stores getting into the act as well.  This doesn't have to be a luxury--it can be a reduction of our carbon footprint.

This falls into the 'have your cake and eat it too' category.  Researchers Anne Goodchild and Erika Wygonik in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington published their findings in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.  They
 compiled data in Seattle and the outlying areas (urban and rural households) and assumed that every household was a possible delivery-service customer. Then, they randomly drew a portion of those households from that data to identify customers and assign them to their closest grocery store. This allowed them to reach across the entire city, without bias toward factors such as demographics and income level.

They used an Environmental Protection Agency modeling tool to calculate emissions at a much more detailed level than previous studies have done. Using factors such as vehicle type, speed and roadway type, they calculated the carbon dioxide produced for every mile for every vehicle.
Emissions reductions were seen across both the densest parts and more suburban areas of Seattle. This suggests that grocery delivery in rural areas could lower carbon dioxide production quite dramatically.

“We tend to think of grocery delivery services as benefiting urban areas, but they have really significant potential to offset the environmental impacts of personal shopping in rural areas as well,” Wygonik said.

Work commuters are offered a number of incentives to reduce traffic on the roads through discounted transit fares, vanpools and carpooling options. Given the emissions reductions possible through grocery delivery services, the research raises the question of whether government or industry leaders should consider incentives for consumers to order their groceries online and save on trips to the store.