Postal Sector Reaches 2020 Target of 20% CO2 Emissions Reduction Six Years Ahead of Schedule
International Post Corporation is delighted to announce that the EMMS participants have collectively reached the programme’s 2020 targets of 20% CO2 reduction compared to the 2008 baseline six years ahead of schedule.
IPC’s Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System (EMMS) programme is a sector wide initiative acting to address the impact of global climate change via a collaborative approach to reduce carbon emissions. The EMMS programme was developed in 2008 in response to stakeholder and CEO requests for the postal sector to minimise its carbon footprint following concerns regarding the contribution of the sector to greenhouse gas emissions. The EMMS programme is a global initiative, consisting of 21 participating postal operators from five continents – Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and South America.
At the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen (Denmark), CEOs from 20 global postal operators committed to working together in order to collectively reduce the group’s carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 and to improve Carbon Management proficiency to 90%.
In 2014, six years earlier than anticipated, the group, which in the meantime expanded its reach and scope, reached the first programme milestone of reducing carbon emissions by 20%.
Just in its seventh year, the EMMS programme continued to make very good progress. The group’s own yearly emissions have decreased by 20.6% since 2008, from 8,879,000 tonnes to 7,050,000 tonnes. By aggregating savings since 2008, this equates to a cumulative 8,178,000 tonnes of carbon emissions that have been avoided over the entire period. Carbon Management proficiency improved to an average of 81% for the group (2008: 56%).
A CLEAR BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Reducing fuel consumption and electricity use, the main contributors to the group’s carbon emissions, also presents opportunities for the group to achieve considerable financial benefits. The group’s own transport emissions have decreased by 5% between 2008 and 2014. When compared to figures if emissions had remained constant, this represents an accumulated saving of 1.2m tonnes of CO2 over the six years of the programme. Using a conservative conversion factor for diesel to calculate the approximate number of litres saved over this time period, the accumulated figure amounts to 447m litres. This represents a financial saving of €327m (US$434m) – a clear incentive for businesses to improve their carbon management.1,2
Overall electricity consumption has also shown significant reductions since the start of the programme. Consumption has decreased from 9.95 TWh in 2008 to 7.95 TWh in 2014, which translates into an accumulated saving of 7.5 TWh over six years. Again using a conservative factor for the cost of electricity this results in a saving of €577m (US$765m).3
With COP21 in Paris fast approaching, the success of the postal sector programme demonstrates how businesses, even without set regulations, can come together and proactively work towards substantially reducing carbon emissions.
In order to further concentrate the posts’ efforts towards minimising its carbon footprint, and remain a leading sector with respect to the contribution to global emissions reduction. The IPC EMMS will therefore be placing greater emphasis on carbon efficiency, progressing the programme from our previous focus on total absolute volumes of emissions reduction. The programme’s coverage will also be broadened to include Scope 3 emissions from sub-contracted and outsourced transport in the targets.
IPC published the 2015 IPC Postal Sector Sustainability Report at the occasion of its Board meeting in New York, USA. It also includes 17 best practice cases showcasing particularly successful environmental initiatives taken by EMMS participants.
Click here to read the report.
1. World bank conversion factor of US$0.97/litre (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EP.PMP.DESL.CD)
2. Currency conversion from OECD (http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=169)
3. US Energy Information Association, Electric Power Annual, Average retail price of electricity to ultimate end users by end-use sector, 2012 Total
(http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/). Currency conversion from OECD (see above).
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