2Sustain

Late last month, UPS released the latest annual update of its corporate sustainability report and announced an ambitious goal: The company wants to improve the miles per gallon (MPG) performance of its entire US package delivery fleet (some 60,000 vehicles) by 20 percent between 2000 and 2020.

UPS has already made progress in this area. Between 2000 and 2009, the company increased the MPG of its US ground fleet by 10 percent. That means that in 2009, UPS drivers logged 77.3 million more miles than in 2000, yet fuel consumption decreased by 3.2 million gallons.

The company uses a variety of approaches to improve fuel efficiency level, including:

• improved vehicle technology,

• effective vehicle maintenance procedures,

• fuel conservation efforts,

• sophisticated routing technology,

• operational initiatives such as minimizing engine idling, and

• alternative fuel technology and vehicle deployments.

UPS’s new sustainability report also announces other recent environmental achievements. For example, in 2009, the company:

• deployed 245 new “green” vehicles running on compressed natural gas, adding to a fleet of nearly 2,000 alternative fuel vehicles.

• joined 10 other members of the Air Transportation Association of America in signing a memorandum of understanding with two potential aviation biofuel developers in 2009.

• began reporting in greater detail on greenhouse gas emissions, including providing information on global CO2e emissions for Scope 1 and 2 for the first time and capturing and reporting more Scope 3 data from more sources.

Over the past few years, I have written several times about new sustainability initiatives at UPS (see previous posts about its green data center, carbon neutral shipping program and green delivery fleet), and it’s great to recognize this corporation once again for its outstanding innovation and leadership with regard to environmental stewardship.