China parcels have a poor carbon footprint due to air transportation
Published: Tuesday, Dec 17th 2024, 12:30
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Low-cost Chinese webshops are very popular with Swiss consumers. But the flood of parcels from China comes at a high price for the climate.
A sweater from Shein, slippers from Temu or a smartphone case from Aliexpress. Inexpensive online stores now deliver their goods directly from China to their customers in Switzerland. This is popular with customers and orders are being placed diligently on the store platforms.
According to estimates by the consulting firm Carpathia, the three stores in Switzerland generate almost one billion francs in sales. The leader is Aliexpress (CHF 390 million), ahead of Temu (CHF 350 million) and Shein (CHF 220 million). And the trend is rising.
"The number of parcels from Asia and China in particular has increased significantly," explains Tabea Rüdin, spokesperson for the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS). Exact figures on online imports are not recorded. According to estimates by the Swiss Retail Association, around 15 million small parcels from China are likely to end up with Swiss customers this year.
Airplane instead of ship
"In our experience, the vast majority of these small and very small consignments arrive in Switzerland by air," continues Rüdin. This is where the problem lies. If a parcel arrives in Switzerland by air, the carbon footprint is much worse than with sea freight.
Figures are provided by a study by ESU Services, a consulting firm specializing in environmental issues. It analyzed various scenarios for online and stationary retail. Sometimes the goods arrive by ship, sometimes by plane. The conclusion: the decisive factor is not the type of retail operation, but the production of the product and how it arrives in Switzerland.
If a T-shirt is shipped from China to Europe by plane instead of by ship, the CO2 footprint is around 2.5 times higher according to the analysis. The difference is less for a laptop, as higher greenhouse gas emissions are generated during production than for a T-shirt. Nevertheless, the carbon footprint is almost a third worse if the laptop is imported by plane instead of ship.
Large online retailers such as Digitec, Brack.ch and Zalando are organized differently to the low-cost providers. They supply their customers from European distribution centers. When asked, they all explain that they mainly import their goods from the Far East by ship. However, it cannot be ruled out that some suppliers have products flown in, they say.
Without intermediate trade
The cheap online stores, on the other hand, supply customers directly from the Far East. A Temu spokesperson argues that CO2 emissions can be saved without intermediate trade and through the efficient use of cargo space in airplanes. A Shein spokesperson adds that their "demand-driven production model significantly reduces waste". The Aliexpress parent company Alibaba did not respond to an inquiry from the news agency AWP.
For online and retail retailers, most CO2 emissions are not generated in the operation of their own premises, but along the so-called upstream and downstream value chain. The two most important factors here are the manufacture of products and transportation.
The sustainability reports show how many emissions are generated in the process. Of the three major Chinese low-cost retailers, only Alibaba and Shein publish such a report, with only Shein disclosing CO2 emissions from transportation. At Shein, transportation emissions account for around a third of greenhouse gas emissions. By comparison, transportation accounts for only 6.5 percent of the entire carbon footprint of online giant Zalando.
Net zero as a target
The high emissions from transportation are a significant factor. Shein generates 0.5 million tons of CO2 per billion US dollars in sales. For its competitor Zalando, the figure is 0.4 tons. In fact, the difference is probably greater, as Zalando's published carbon footprint is more detailed than that of Shein.
After all, almost everyone agrees that CO2 emissions must be reduced: Alibaba and Shein, like many European corporations, have set themselves climate protection targets. They have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. Of the low-cost companies, only Temu has no climate protection targets.
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