Belgian postal operator bpost is offering customers a new option of shipping their mail in aCO2-neutral manner from 1 June onwards.
Belgian companies can now offset the CO2 emissions generated through the shipment of their mailby making a small additional financial contribution to the CO2 reduction programme. The chosenproject is certified according to the Gold Standard, a norm developed by the World Wildlife Fund(WWF), among others, and selected by the independent organisation CO2logic.
Each year, more than a billion advertising mailings and administrative documents (invoices, bankstatements, etc.) are sent within Belgium. The CO2-neutral letters can be identified by theirrecipients via the “CO2-neutral distribution for customer XYZ” mention stamped on the envelope.
The companies taking place in the project pay about 0.1% in additional postage costs. Thesecontributions support a wind park in Turkey, in the region of Istanbul, which produces wind powerfor the public network. For each euro contributed by the companies, bpost also invests one euro ina sustainable project in Belgium.
In addition, bpost makes sure that all mailings (20 to 30 million items) the company sends toits employees and its customers are now handled in a CO2-neutral way.
Last month, the CO2 compensation system was tested as part of a pilot project with Cameleon, amarket leader in the private sale of clothing, accessories and decorative items in the Benelux anda pioneer in sustainable company development. Wigny Augustine, CEO of Chameleon, said: “Ourcommercial mailings are an ideal way to communicate with our customers. The compensation mechanismprovided by bpost gives us an additional way to communicate our environmental commitment. “
The new system to offset CO2 emissions adds to the Carbon Meter that bpost launched a year ago.With Carbon Meter, mailers can calculate and reduce the CO2 emissions of their commercial shipmentsthrough appropriate choices of paper, colours, ink, formats, etc.
Both initiatives are part of the programme “Green Post”, which was established in 2010 withsupport from WWF and will be further expanded.
Bpost has pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 35% over the period of 2007-2012. For 2010, ithad already achieved a reduction of 27% in emissions.
