A [[life cycle assessment]] of e-scooter sharing systems performed by researchers at [[North Carolina State University]] calls the sustainability benefits of the programs into question, finding that nearly two thirds of the time people use shared e-scooters, they are creating more CO2 emission than they would have if scooter share was not an option. The LCA took into account the [[embodied energy]] of the scooters (materials and manufacturing, use, transportation and charging, and end-of-life for shared dockless e-scooters. Additionally, the researchers used surveys of users to gather information on usage habits and patterns, and found that e-scooter use displaced use of a personal automobile or ride share service only 34% of the time. Without an e-scooter option, 49% said they would have biked or walked and 11% would have used a city bus, three modes of transportation with significantly lower per-passenger-mile carbon footprints than e-scooters, and 7% of users reported that they would not have taken the trip otherwise. The authors concluded that 65% of the time, e-scooter usage creates a net increase global warming impact over the transportation modes it displaces, and while e-scooters may improve urban congestion, they do not reduce environmental impacts from transportion.<ref name=Hollingsworth>{{cite journal |last1=Hollingsworth |first1=Joseph |last2=Copeland |first2=Brenna |date=2 August 2019 |title=Are e-scooters polluters? The environmental impacts of shared dockless electric scooters |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2da8#erlab2da8f3 |journal=Environmental Research Letters |volume=14 |issue=8 |pages= |doi=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2da8 |access-date=6 May 2022}}</ref>
