The Environmental Implications of Electronic Commerce - A Critical Review and Framework for Future Investigation

• There are accelerating trends for the implementation of electronic commerce(e-commerce) as an extra marketing channel for selling products globally via the access of the Internet. This is expected to in¯uence the shape of future cities and the conservation of natural resources. This paper critically reviews the current research work to date regarding the environmental implications of e-commerce. The main observation is that there are dif®culties to generalise the results. There is a general agreement that it is highly dif®cult, if not impossible, to state if the damaging effects of e-commerce on the environment can weigh over the advantageous effects or the contrary. One proposition in this context is that instead of looking at e-commerce as ªa vehicle driving towards freely satisfying the market needsº, we should look at e-commerce as ªa cart attached to our vehicle towards sustainable developmentº.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Annan maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Other Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Internet

Life cycle assessment

Enviromental management

Electronic commerce

Environment

Environmental assessment

Energy consumption

packaging logistics

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)