Under PostEurop’s impulse European postal operators have decided to combine their forces to address the climate change challenge and significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
Nine operators - Deutsche Post World Net, TNT, La Poste Group, Post Danmark, Swiss Post, De Post / La Poste, Itella, Posten Norge, and Maltapost - have already agreed to an ambitious average 10% reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years and more PostEurop Members are expected to commit before year-end.
The postal sector in Europe, through the very nature of its activities, has an impact on the environment, mostly in the form of greenhouse gas emissions which represent 70% of its total environmental impact. Half of these CO2 emissions result from the use of road transport, with aviation and building energy usage also contributing significantly.
There is however considerable scope for improvement and as a vital sector of the European economy, the postal sector is committed to providing an example, by working closely with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to reduce the whole sector’s impact in Europe and worldwide.
What will European postal operators commit to do in practice? Their share of CO2 emissions being currently between 8 and 11 million tons yearly they are well placed to reduce this while remaining competitive in economic and service terms. Four key areas will be covered by the programme:
- Transport
- Buildings and machinery
- Eco-efficiency products -* Procurement and use of renewable energy and low carbon fuels.
Elaborated by PostEurop’s Environment Working Group under the _ authority of the Social Responsibility Committee, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programme is fully in line with the Kyoto Protocol and the European Climate Change Programme targets. Its aim is to develop the appropriate tools to measure and assess the reduction efforts of participating postal operators and to create synergies by exchanging best practices in that field.
Commenting the initiative to which he has just signed up to, Mr Jean-Paul Bailly, La Poste Group President, said: “Managing greenhouse gas emissions has become a strategic challenge for all postal operators and a common positioning on this will certainly contribute to moving faster and in a more efficient way.”
More about the programme can be found on
www.posteurop.org/environment.
POSTEUROP
is the association which represents European public postal opera
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