December 15, 2023 — A new first-of-a-kind study titled Ecommerce and Environmental Justice in Metro Seattle written by Urban Freight Lab researchers sheds light on disparities in delivery-related air pollution affecting neighborhoods near Amazon’s last-mile facilities in the Seattle metropolitan area. The study reveals an imbalance between those benefitting from online shopping and those affected by its environmental impact.
Published in this month’s Research in Transportation Economics, the study shows that communities located within a two-mile radius of these last-mile Urban Distribution Centers (UDCs) experience double the traffic volume from delivery trucks and vans compared to neighborhoods farther away. Despite ordering 14% fewer packages than the area average, these neighborhoods are exposed to disproportionately heightened levels of delivery-related air pollution. Notably, these neighborhoods are characterized by a higher proportion of low-income and BIPOC households.
The study comes at a pivotal time as Amazon plans to expand its warehouse network and double the number of same-day delivery facilities in the upcoming years. The surge in demand for quick home deliveries led to warehouses and distribution centers surpassing office space as the primary commercial and industrial land use. This trajectory, approaching nearly 100% growth since 2003, forecasts an anticipated need for an additional 9.3 million square meters of warehousing space by 2025, as projected by real estate developers.
Lead author Travis Fried, a doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a research assistant for the Urban Freight Lab, acknowledges the complexity of the issue and advocates for strategic solutions. Fried advocates for improved efficiency in pre-last-mile freight movement, such as electrifying delivery vans), integrating warehouses into the city landscape (similar to Paris’s multi-functional logistics hotels), and reevaluating policies to strategically position warehouses in high package volume areas. The goal is to find a balance between essential goods movement and minimizing the impact on communities.
Researchers aim to expand the study, delving deeper into the specific impacts on various demographic groups and making their modeling approach accessible to other cities.