In the US, carbon emissions connected with consumer purchases are twice as high as those related to home energy use and personal travel. Unfortunately, it’s challenging for consumers to get information about these emissions, even when they want to make environmentally friendly choices. A recent study in PNAS uses a series of tech interface experiments to assess whether carbon offset information will influence consumer behavior, finding that manufacturers can improve consumer satisfaction and reduce their environmental impact by providing consumers with environmentally friendly options.

These researchers were interested in techniques that make environmentally friendly choices easy for consumers to identify and whether those affect consumer choices. The choices were tested in the context of shipping options, ridesharing services, and online video streaming.

The first two experiments looked at Amazon Prime shipping. One of the benefits of Amazon Prime membership is free two-day shipping, so many consumers automatically select this even if they do not need their items within two days. To incentivize the selection of slower shipping, Amazon offers Prime customers a $1 credit if they select a no-rush shipping option instead.