2Sustain

The U.S. Postal Service has redesigned its green-oriented website, USPS.com/green, to make it even easier for consumers to find eco-friendly options for mail and shipping.

Visit the site and you’ll learn about USPS online services, eco-friendly packaging products, and how to green your mail. (If you have a spare three minutes, you can even calculate your personal carbon footprint.)

What’s more, the site also highlights the Postal Services’ overall commitment to environmental stewardship.

For instance, I learned that the Postal Service has established several very specific green goals, including:

• By 2015, the agency wants to reduce energy use and intensity in facilities 30 percent, cut vehicle petroleum fuel use 20 percent, and increase the use of vehicle alternative fuel by 10 percent.

• It also wants to reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

In my estimation, the Postal Service is off to a good start. Already, the agency has reduced energy intensity by 17 percent since 2003, and it has increased alternative fuel use in its fleet by 61 percent since 2005. (These days, the USPS fleet is one of the largest alternative fuel capable vehicle fleets in the world.)

In addition, the Postal Service has recorded a few significant “firsts:”

• The Postal Service is the first government agency to report its GHG emissions –and the first to receive third-party verification of its results.

• In 2007, the Postal Service became the first of its peers to achieve Cradle-to -Cradle certification for its mailing supplies.  Now, nearly all Express Mail, Priority Mail, ReadyPost, and other packing supplies are Cradle-to-Cradle certified. Next year, all stamps will be Cradle-to-Cradle certified, as well.

More details about sustainability efforts at USPS are available in the agency’s  48-page inaugural report, “Delivering a Greener Tomorrow.”