(New York, NY, Thursday, August 13, 2020) – The global pandemic has accelerated the already fast-moving transition to online shopping, pushing more consumers to turn to e-commerce platforms for their everyday shopping needs – a trend that is expected to become permanent.

Consumer products are the single largest source of environmental impact in our modern world, contributing to climate change, causing widespread natural resource and ecosystems destruction, exposing humans to hazardous chemicals, and filling up the ocean and landfills across the globe.

The greatest impact can be made by reducing the environmental and health footprint of the products themselves. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is launching an e-commerce sustainability campaign to help retailers with their efforts moving forward.

EDF is releasing an e-commerce playbook that raises the bar for leadership in the retail sector. It calls on major e-commerce retailers to take responsibility for their products and their life cycles, and provides a roadmap for how to do so using seven steps:

• Assess chemical and carbon footprint;
• Set carbon footprint goals;
• Align business operations with sustainability goals;
• Engage product suppliers and sellers to join;
• Help consumers make sustainable choices;
• Measure progress and share publicly; and
• Lead the industry forward on sustainability.

Environmental Defense Fund’s mission is to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends. Guided by science and economics, they find practical and lasting solutions to the most serious environmental problems. They work to solve the most critical environmental problems facing the planet. This has drawn them to areas that span the biosphere: climate, oceans, ecosystems and health.

For more information, visit www.sustainableonlineshopping.com.