By: Mark Eyerman

Fort Collins, Colo. — Last year, Amazon made over 225 billion dollars in gross profit. They did this primarily through their online shipping and retailing business. This much profit means that Amazon must be able to ship over a million packages a day.

To do this, they use distribution centers to help get their products to their customers. Currently, Amazon is building a 600,000-acre distribution facility in Loveland in order to help increase their delivery times to customers in Colorado and increase their investment in the state as a whole.

From an environmental perspective, this is a positive change because it will decrease the impact that local consumers have on the Earth. A study referenced in The Story of Stuff, a book about how the production cycle can hurt the environment, found that “online shopping was more efficient and sustainable in terms of energy used, conventional air pollutants generated, waste generated, and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Given the fact that this distribution center will encourage online shopping, it can be said that this center is ultimately an environmental good as it will decrease the impact consumers have on the environment.
This belief is further corroborated by a thesis done on the comparative environmental effects of online shopping vs. brick-and-mortar locations.

This thesis states: “Online shopping tends to have a better environmental impact than traditional shopping.” This illustrates how Amazon’s new distribution and fulfillment center in Loveland could actually have a largely positive impact on the environment because it will increase the amount consumers buy online as opposed to shopping in person.

This construction has been welcomed by the local community. According to an article by the Coloradoan, “Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh called Amazon’s investment in the city ‘transformative’ and One of the largest economic development projects Loveland has ever seen.” Alongside lessening the environmental impacts of consumerism, this warehouse can also be seen as providing thousands of jobs and boosting the local economy.

Ultimately, the distribution of goods can hurt the environment. This can be through greenhouse gas emissions and other waste produced. The Amazon fulfillment and distribution center being built near Fort Collins will ultimately lower this impact by encouraging consumers to shop online; a process that is ultimately less harmful to the environment than shopping at a brick-and-mortar store. Also, this warehouse will increase jobs in the surrounding area and provide an economic boost to Colorado as a whole.