The South African Post Office will be the first postal operator from a BRICS nation to join theInternational Post Corporation’s Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System.
Under an agreement signed today, the South African Post Office (SAPO) will be the firstnon-IPC member to join the IPC-run EMMS programme. The agreement was signed by Kgabo Mokgohloa,Head of Environmental Sustainability at South African Post Office (pictured left), and Jane Dyer,Director of Markets and Communications at IPC.
As the first sector-wide carbon reduction initiative for a services industry, the objectiveof the EMMS programme has, since its inception, been to engage as many postal operators from aroundthe world as possible, IPC pointed out. By joining the carbon reduction programme for postaloperators worldwide, SAPO has signed up to contribute to the collective attainment of the 20 percent carbon emissions reduction target by 2020.
The South African Post Office has set a target to reduce its 2008-09 baseline emissions by2.5 percentage points year on year. Over the past two financial years the company reduced itsbaseline fleet emissions by 6.3 per cent (2.9 per cent for 2009-10 and 3.4 per cent for 2010-11)and planted 1,964 trees (857 trees planted in 2009-10 and 1,107 in 2010-11) at schools to helpoffset its carbon footprint.
Herbert-Michael Zapf, IPC President and CEO, welcomed South African Post Office into EMMS,saying that its involvement marked “a milestone in the development of the postal industry’scollaborative approach to tackling its carbon footprint. We know that we cannot achieve a trulyglobal approach without the involvement of emerging economies. This is why it has been ourobjective to engage BRICS and other developing nations. South African Post Office has made greatstrides in its sustainability efforts, and its participation in this worldwide programme will onlystrengthen those efforts and is an example to postal operators in other developing nations”.
South African Post Office’s CEO Motshoanetsi Lefoka said: “We are hugely aware of the impactthat business activities can have on the environment and have already been actively investing intechnology and processes that limit our environmental impact: joining the EMMS programme allows usto both contribute to a global effort and share best practices with and learn from our peers aroundthe world.” The South African Post Office is currently testing electric scooters for delivery, hasreplaced all incandescent lamps with power-saving lights and is optimising air conditioning systemsin its plants.
South Africa is the first BRICS and African nation to join the full programme, strengtheningEMMS’ footprint both among developing nations and in Africa. In 2010 Nigeria and Rwanda, along withBrazil, participated in the pilot iEMMS programme, an introductory version of EMMS which allowsthose postal operators that are not ready to sign up to the common industry target to nonethelesscontribute to emissions monitoring and reporting.
Launched as a pilot in 2008 with 16 posts, EMMS now covers 22 postal operators. South AfricanPost Office’s engagement brings the total number of participating postal operators to 23,representing over 80 per cent of global postal volumes. In the 2010 Postal Sector SustainabilityReport, IPC announced that participating posts had collectively cut their carbon emissions by597,000 tonnes, more than a third of the 20-2020 target.
