Brick and mortar stores must be consistently replenished. To do this, their suppliers ship more product than they need to a warehouse, which is then divided and shipped to different stores, normally by a truck.
If one shop is low on product then other products will be shipped from their original location back to the warehouse, where they will be sorted and re-shipped to other stores that need it. However, with online stores such as Lifelong, we know exactly how much product we need and it's only ever shipped once to us, before we send it out to you.
When looking at this from above, you should also consider your journey to the store to buy your products. Many people don't live near a store they can walk to and must drive instead, which has its own carbon footprint.
As our products are powder-based, we take away the heaviest part to ship: water. Thankfully, this means we actively reduce our carbon transport emissions by 94%.
When you buy from a store, the packaging has to be stronger as it must travel longer distances and tolerate additional handling. With Lifelong, we only ship in 100% recyclable boxes that are the right size for your letterbox. We don't add unnecessary bubble wrap, fillings or any other wasteful rubbish. Plus all our labels and tape are completely compostable.
We also only ship by normal post. Why? Your local postal service have routes that they must travel every single day in order to post all your daily letters to you, your neighbours, and your friends. They must do their daily rounds regardless of how much mail you receive, if any.
Because of this, we ship all our products by normal scheduled post, which lowers the carbon footprint immensely. Sadly fast fashion and express shipping have a lot to answer for when it comes to increased transport emissions as a single trip is made specifically for you only. You can look at it like catching a train with everyone on a predetermined route, rather than driving your car alone to the coast for your holiday.
You can happily feel safe and confident that by choosing Lifelong personal care, you are helping lower carbon emissions and stopping single use plastic that ends up in landfill - a win for you and the planet!
