Eco-efficiency in the era of electronic commerce – should ‘Eco-Effectiveness’ approach be adopted?

In the 1980s, when PCs were first introduced, a vision arose of the “paperless office.” Yet, it did not yield the anticipated environmental benefits. Nowadays, such optimism about the implications of information technology, and in particular, E-commerce continues to proliferate today. But will E-commerce turn out to be a success story, or another unrealised utopia? Drawing on content analysis and concept development methods, this paper discusses a number of observations of interest in the literature that, taken together, point out that eco-efficiency is not sufficient to be the leadership strategy of choice for forecasting and reducing environmental damage arising from the implementation of E-commerce. Rather, utilizing an emerging concept of eco-effectiveness together with eco-efficiency may offer a model for managing the environmental consequences of E-commerce. Yet, to wield more influence, the current concept of eco-effectiveness needs to be expanded in order to complement – and not to replace – eco-efficiency.