Swiss Post customers can now decide in an online vote in which climate protection project thecompany will invest its CO2 offsetting ‘pro clima’ surcharge.
With 124 million shipments and over 180 business customers since its introduction in February2009, pro clima has shown a positive development, the company said. But it did not disclose howmuch money was raised in 2010.
Since February 2009, customers can offset the CO2 emissions generated through their mailings bypaying a “pro clima” surcharge. Swiss Post also uses pro clima internally to offset the CO2emissions resulting from its own correspondence.
Swiss Post then invests the collected surcharges in a climate protection project which would notbe possible without additional funding. This makes the shipments CO2 neutral.
The “pro clima” steering committee has now put forward three projects for customers to vote forone of them on the Swiss Post website until 6 February.
One project focuses on wind power in New Caledonia, the main island in the southwest Pacific. Aspart of the project, six small wind farms are constructed to replace coal as an energy source. As aresult, New Caledonia can reduce its emissions of harmful greenhouse gases and improve local airquality. Each of these wind farms has an output of 5 megawatts. As a Pacific Island state and hometo the world’s largest lagoon, New Caledonia is particularly threatened by the effects of climatechange, including rising sea levels, ocean acidification and ever-changing rainfall. Through thecreation of 50 new jobs, the project is also important for the local population and is helping toreduce the pressure to migrate. Furthermore, it reduces New Caledonia’s dependency on the import offossil fuels.
Another alternative project for selection generates electricity from harvest waste in India. Atthe biomass power plant in Karnataka, harvest waste such as sugar cane or coconut leaves are burnedand used to generate electricity. In particular, the power plant can process biomass with a lowthermal value. The electricity generated in this way is fed into the local supply grid, replacingelectricity produced from fossil fuels and thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The facilitycreates over 400 jobs in the region, including the procurement and transport of harvest waste, atthe power plant and for the production of organic fertilisers.
The third project generates electricity from waste disposal gas in Turkey. The Mamak wastedisposal plant in Ankara province collects gases and produces organic and syngas, which isprocessed by gas turbines to produce electricity. For this purpose, the disposal site was covered,a gravitational water drainage system was developed, and a sorting and recycling centre set up.Around 200 employees work at the waste disposal site, and they receive special training foroperation and maintenance of the plant. The facility replaces conventional power plants in theregion and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions thanks to renewable energies.
Swiss Post said it only supports environmental projects with the independently monitored “GoldStandard”. This is currently the highest quality seal ensuring that the CO2 reduction projectsresult in a real reduction in greenhouse gases and promote sustainable development in the countriesconcerned.
Pro clima is part of Swiss Post’s three-tier environmental strategy. Firstly, it aims to reduceenergy consumption as far as possible. Secondly, it is replacing energies from non-renewablesources with renewable energies. Finally, it offsets energy consumption that cannot be saved orreplaced with renewable energies.
