It’s time to end the world’s biggest shopping event. Alibaba (9988.HK), has kicked off China’s annual Singles’ Day event and wants it to be greener this time. But the extravaganza looks increasingly at odds with Beijing’s environmental goals. If Alibaba is serious about sustainability, calling off the consumption overkill would send a stronger message than tweaking it around the edges.
Started over a decade ago to coax Chinese shoppers onto Alibaba’s online sites, Singles’ Day has morphed into a national obsession featuring glitzy galas and performances and plenty of addictive discounts with a tap on a smartphone screen. Last year, the company processed a whopping $74 billion in transactions over an 11-day period. This year’s numbers will dazzle again: A record 290,000 brands will offer some 14 million deals to over 900 million bargain-hunters. Rival sites like JD.com (9618.HK), have joined in too.
It’s an impressive feat involving millions of workers handling billions of packages. Alibaba’s logistics arm mobilised 3,000 planes during last year’s event to ship foreign products into the country; this year, it has already pre-stocked some 300 million goods from abroad.
Such excess will have an environmental cost. Figures are scarce, but Greenpeace estimated that deliveries of 2016 Singles’ Day orders generated 52,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide. A more recent report in 2019 forecast the volume of packaging material used by e-commerce and delivery sectors would more than quadruple to 41.3 million tonnes by 2025 from 2018.
For its part, Alibaba plans to cut order-related carbon emissions by 30% this year, though it has yet to disclose actual numbers. It’s touting recycling services, data centres that run on renewable energy and even algorithms that match products with the right-sized parcel to cut waste. The company is also offering 100 million yuan worth ($15.6 million) of vouchers for eco-friendly brands.
Those are welcome steps. Still, against the backdrop of the United Nations climate summit underway in Glasgow and President Xi Jinping’s goal for China to be carbon neutral by 2060, the country’s corporate titans can afford to be bolder. Besides, Singles’ Day has outlived its intended purpose as a marketing gimmick and is financially not as significant these days: Last year’s transactions accounted for just 6% of Alibaba’s total for the fiscal year. The company is better off ditching it entirely.
