Development and growth of Internet environmental exchange services

Abstract

Many e-commerce services have evolved from well-established market segmentation, market targeting, and business strategies. Auction-forms of e-commerce service have emerged in which buyers and sellers offer, evaluate, negotiate, and consummate exchanges of goods and services through money or barter. Environmental exchanges, a specialty area of auction services, provide opportunities for public, private, and nonprofit buyers and sellers to trade environmental pollution credits, assets associated with regulatory offsets, subscription services for trends/status information, and other valued goods/services. These exchanges achieve the dual purpose of satisfying business needs/profit and enhancing environmental quality. Of particular interest is the evolution of environmental e-commerce strategies, since these environmental exchange markets are highly fragmented and have not worked effectively under conventional market mechanisms. Given these market imperfections, public policies may be needed to correct for inherently deficient markets, which if improved, could yield both private and social benefits, i.e., enhanced environmental quality. This paper examines the evolution of electronic commerce and environmental exchanges, with a particular focus on GreenOnline.Com. The paper compares and contrasts environmental exchanges with other common forms of e-commerce, discusses the development of new product/service market strategies, and tracks the growth of the exchange. Public policy implications for advancing environmental exchange e-commerce are also briefly discussed.