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Eco-Friendly Ecommerce: A Chrome Extension for Tracking your Carbon Footprint
Anyone that has ever used Amazon’s quick delivery function can attribute to the fact that it is hugely convenient. Amazon’s same-day or single-day delivery is powered by a network of independent contractors. Unlike their USPS counterparts, Amazon’s independent contractors drive significantly smaller and more inefficient vehicles; and in some cases, they carry only one package. But mid-sized and heavy-duty trucks (the ones that make up the majority of Amazon’s shipping force) “are responsible for nearly one-quarter of the carbon footprint in the transportation category…if one-day shipping incentivizes more purchases, it’s likely that more fuel will be expensed to power more vehicles on the road” (vox.com) It’s one thing to simply point out that Amazon’s quick shipping is bad for the environment, but it’s a completely different thing to track your contributions to Amazon’s carbon footprint. In this article, I will walk you through the process of creating a chrome extension to track your carbon footprint on Amazon.
But first, what is a chrome extension? A chrome extension simply put is an add-on to the Google Chrome browser. Chrome extensions can be used to do everything from blocking ads to defining unknown words and everything in between. Developing a Chrome Extension is fairly easy, even if you are a complete…
