USPS saved more than $5 million in 2010 with the help of its ‘Lean Green Teams’ reducing energy,water, solid waste to landfills and petroleum fuel use.
Lean Green Teams also helped the US postal operator recycle more than 222,000 tons of materialwhich is an increase of nearly 8,000 tons over the prior year. This generated $13 million inrevenue, and saved an additional $9.1 million in landfill fees.
Emil Dzuray, acting Chief Sustainability Officer, commented: “Across the country, postalemployees are participating in more than 80 cross-functional Lean Green Teams that are producingsignificant results in energy reduction and resource conservation.”
Lean Green Teams build on the company’s efforts to create a culture of conservation and on itslong history of environmental and socially responsible leadership. They help combine low-cost andno-cost sustainable practices with performance management systems in order to meet USPS’environmental goals by 2015. These include the reduction of facility energy use by 30%, water useby 10%, petroleum fuel use by 20% and landfill waste by 50%.
According to Dzuray, USPS is on track to achieve these goals and plans to deploy Lean GreenTeams nationwide by 2012.
“With nearly 32,000 facilities and the largest civilian fleet in the nation, we know howimportant our efforts are to make a positive impact on the environment,” Dzuray added. “Ouremployee green teams are an important part of building a conservation culture and reducing ourcarbon footprint.”
As part of its green efforts, the Postal Service buys sustainable materials and works to reducethe amount of consumables it buys. The agency first developed a “buy green” policy more than 12years ago, and has a goal to reduce spending on consumables 30% by 2020. In 2009, its consumablesspending decreased 16% from the previous year. Additionally, the Postal Service is working toincrease the percentage of environmentally preferable products it buys by 50% by 2015. Theseproducts are bio-based, have recycled content, are eco-labelled and are energy and waterefficient.
