Grocery Delivery or Customer Pickup—Influences on Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions in Munich

Lukas Hardi,Ulrich Wagner

doi:10.3390/su11030641

Abstract

The number of supermarkets offering grocery delivery has increased in recent years. Many studies conclude that CO2 emission savings result from this concept. Since the delivery of groceries also consumes energy and produces emissions, break-even points can be calculated, where the delivery is environmentally beneficial compared to customer pickup. In this paper, influences of differing vehicle use on break-even points for savings of energy and CO2 emissions are analyzed for the case of Haidhausen Süd, a district in Munich, Germany. Internal combustion engine and electric vehicles are investigated to depict current as well as future trends. After an introduction to the methodology used, the potential to save energy and CO2 emissions related to the delivery of groceries in the chosen district of Munich are evaluated. Subsequently, influences on the break-even points are presented and discussed. As the results show, a delivery of groceries leads to energy and carbon dioxide savings in a wide range of private vehicle use for grocery shopping trips. Nevertheless, if the complete customer vehicle fleet is electrified, the use of delivery vehicles with an internal combustion engine could cause an additional environmental impact at the current modal split for shopping trips in Germany.

Highlights

Nowadays, cities are confronted by traffic problems, resulting in increasing environmental impacts
Distinctive finding is that combustion-engine, and electric delivery vehicles, have the potential to save energy and CO2. Another finding is that the substitution of customer shopping trips by Freight Vehicles (FEV) leads to higher relative CO2 savings than the use of ICEFVS, which derives from the higher efficiency of electric vehicles, the specific emissions of the German electricity mix clearly
The results of this paper show that the delivery of groceries in Haidhausen Süd, a district of the city of Munich, has the potential to save energy and CO2 compared to individual shopping trips

Summary

Introduction

Cities are confronted by traffic problems, resulting in increasing environmental impacts. Looking at the traffic volume of motorized private transport in Germany in 2017, 17.5% [1] results from shopping trips. As a proportion of all shopping trips relates to the supply of foodstuffs, the delivery of groceries instead of an individual customer pickup offers a chance to reduce traffic in cities. In this respect, tours by delivery vehicles can substitute customer shopping trips. Tours by delivery vehicles can substitute customer shopping trips This scenario simultaneously offers an opportunity for reducing energy and carbon dioxide emissions

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion