The postal industry cut its CO2 emissions by over half a million tonnes in 2009, as a result of the first year of the postal industry’s collective efforts to reduce its environmental impact.
The International Post Corporation launched an environmental measurement and monitoring system at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. It reckons this made the postal industry the first global services industry to adopt a sector-wide approach to sustainability.
In this first year of reporting nearly all of the 20 participating postal operators improved their carbon management scores on 2008, reporting a collective reduction in CO2 emissions of a total 597,000 tonnes.
The 20 post operators which took part in the report manage over 100,000 facilities and 600,000 transport vehicles, and represent over 80 per cent of global mail volumes.
Chief executive and president of International Post, Michael Zapf, said: “Participating posts will naturally have focused on areas where emissions reductions will have been most readily achievable, whether in driving energy efficiency or converting to green electricity. This is why we are unlikely to see such dramatic reductions year-on-year, and while reaching our 20/2020 target will likely become increasingly challenging with each year, as an industry we remain committed to achieving it”.
