The Finnish postal operator Itella has reduced the carbon footprint of its electronic mail
Bbetween 2008 and 2010, Itella’s NetPosti gradually reduced its emissions through theenvironmental friendliness of the equipment and methods deployed for providing the service. NowNetPosti also compensates for these emissions by participating in climate projects.
Climate projects compensate for the use of fossil fuels and produce renewable energy with windpower or biogas, for example. This guarantees that a corresponding emission amount is reducedsomewhere else. Compensating emissions takes place in reliable and certified Gold Standard climateprojects that include sites reviewed by an independent environmental certifier.
Since February, Finland has been the first country in the world to receive all mail throughcarbon neutral delivery. All letters, publications, parcels and direct advertisements delivered byPosti are carbon neutral.
Tommi Björklund, Director in charge of NetPosti Services, said: “The primary objective ofNetPosti and Itella has been to actively reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by taking measuresof their own. Now that this has already been done, we at NetPosti also wanted to compensate for theremaining emissions, which are very low, by participating in climate projects. We want to promote acleaner environment with no compromise. Our customers also regard environmental friendliness as oneof the key reasons for using NetPosti.”
As a secure digital service for consumers, companies and organisations, NetPosti includes anelectronic mailbox with a seven-year archive, thousands of official forms in digital format, andfacsimile editions of magazines from different publishers. At the moment, there are 4,000 sendercompanies and over 300,000 consumers in the service including small-scale companies andorganisations. Over 5.2 million digital letters were delivered to consumers through the service in2010. Itella has expanded NetPosti to include corporate and organisation recipients.
