Posts in Europe are stepping up efforts to reduce CO2 emissions but have suffered a setback withthe impact of the international recession, according to senior managers.
While postal volumes have fallen sharply as a result of the recession, CO2 emissions havebeen reduced much less due to postal operators’ obligations to maintain comprehensivetransportation and delivery networks, speakers said at the environmental session of the WorldPostal Business Forum at the recent Post-Expo.
“The CO2 efficiency figures are worse,” admitted Stefan Schablinski, a member of the DeutschePost DHL GoGreen management team. “The recession has not helped in any way,” agreed Martin Blake,Royal Mail’s head of sustainability.
Nevertheless, public postal operators throughout Europe are pressing ahead with diverseactivities to reduce their CO2 footprints, the conference heard. The UPU is due to present anoverview of the international postal sector’s progress at the UN environmental conference inCopenhagen in December, with Europe serving as an example.
A total of 17 European Posts have now signed up to PostEurop’s Greenhouse Gas ReductionProgramme, secretary general Ingemar Persson said. In addition, eight Posts from Central andEastern Europe have joined as observers with the aim of becoming full members in the near future.
The programme’s target is for Posts to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% between 2007 and 2012 on avoluntary basis, he said. In 2007, 14 PostEurop members emitted 4.5 million tonnes of CO2, about65% from transportation activities and 35% from buildings. Overall, an estimated 8-11 milliontonnes of CO2 emissions are produced by European public postal operators. In comparison,international airlines are responsible for some 50 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions, Persson pointedout.
Outlining La Poste’s sustainable development strategy, Stéphanie Scouppe, assistant forsustainable development, said the French postal group aimed to reduce CO2 emissions by 12% by 2012.Emissions from transportation, responsible for 80% of the total, should be cut by 15%, whileemissions from buildings, accounting for the remainder, should be reduced by 9%.
By 2012, La Poste plans to build up a fleet of 10,000 electric-powered vehicles, 3,000electric quads and 12,000 electric bikes, Scouppe said. Other emission reduction measures includeeco-driving training, more long-haul transportation by rail, bulk loading of parcels anddouble-decker trucks. But there are no plans for ‘green products’, she said.
Royal Mail’s sustainability chief Martin Blake said the British postal group’s basic strategywas to “avoid, replace or offset” emissions, and had introduced various ‘green’ products, includingSustainable Mail, Responsible Mail and carbon-free parcels. Emission reduction activities includeddriver training, introduction of double-decker trailers for long-haul transportation and thetesting of hydrogen fuel technology for local vehicles.
Although it is “not easy” to convince managers to invest in decarbonisation measures in themiddle of a recession, external pressure will increase in future in the form of fiscal taxes andtargets, Blake pointed out. “It will become easier because the cost of doing nothing willincrease.” Royal Mail can now calculate its CO2 footprint down to local site level, thus enablingenergy consumption budgets and CO2 targets for local managers, he noted.
Deutsche Post DHL’s Schablinski said the German postal group targeted a 10% improvement oftheir own CO2 efficiency by 2012 and a 30% efficiency improvement by 2020, includingsub-contractors. With 32.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2008, the group had the largestfootprint in the industry, but 80% of this was actually generated by sub-contractors, he noted. “This is the largest challenge at the moment,” he commented.
DP DHL aims to gain more detailed data about sub-contractor emissions so that it can start toprovide its customers with fuller information about the CO2 footprint of services they buy fromDHL, Schablinski explained. “More and more customers want to know how much CO2 is produced by DHLwith their shipments. This is becoming a trend.” In future, the group aimed to provide thisinformation to customers and also help them to reduce their CO2 footprint. “Customers want us tohelp them take carbon out of their supply chain,” he commented.
But data was a particular problem in the road transportation sector since no organisation wascollecting data at an industry level, he said. DP DHL had thus started a pilot project with 150sub-contracted road haulage partners but would prefer a standardised industry approach on thisissue, he added.
Asked about the cost and availability of electric vehicles, Blake said it was necessary togenerate customer demand “through joint orders” so that large-scale production could take place andelectric vehicle prices could fall as a result. But Scouppe said La Poste aimed to have 33% of itsfleet electric-powered by 2012, although the lack of large-scale industrial production of thenecessary batteries was a problem.
On the potential to switch volumes to rail, Blake noted that Royal Mail had moved away fromrail transportation due to quality and service problems.
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