2Sustain

Over the past month, UPS has deployed 245 new delivery trucks powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to cities in Colorado and California. They join more than 900 CNG vehicles already in use by UPS worldwide.

Specifically, the new trucks are now at work in Denver (140 trucks) and four cities in California: San Ramon (18), Fresno (16), West Los Angeles (59) and Ontario (12). They are expected to yield a 15 percent emissions reduction over the cleanest diesel engines available in the market today. (more…)

Recent research found that the vast majority of companies have, or are developing, some type of sustainable packaging policy.

But even though there’s a heightened awareness and lots of interest, green packaging remains poorly understood.

Fortunately, a new three-part online series by Nancy Parmer shines a spotlight on the issue, promising to address the fundamental concerns surrounding sustainable packaging and its role in the green supply chain.

Parmer, who is senior director of sustainability, customer solutions group, at UPS, says the series will dissect each of these three key green packaging strategies: (more…)

Earlier this week, UPS became the first small package carrier to offer its customers the ability to offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the transport of their packages within the United States.

Under this new program, UPS will offer U.S. shippers the option of paying a small fee — $0.05 for UPS Ground services and $0.20 for UPS Next Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS 3 Day Select services –to calculate and offset the climate impact of the shipment of each of their packages.

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Earlier this week, UPS released its 2008 sustainability report and announced an aggressive CO2 reduction plan that will cut the carbon emissions of its airlines by an additional 20% by 2020, resulting in a cumulative reduction of 42% since 1990. This new carbon emission reduction target is particularly significant to UPS because jet planes are responsible for 53% of the company’s carbon output.

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I’m starting to notice a little shift in the tide. For awhile now, it has been relatively easy to find information about the importance of adopting sustainability initiatives. For instance, we all know that you can find blog post after blog post (including many here) urging you to start moving your company toward climate mitigation strategies and even broader CSR goals. But, now, something somewhat different is starting to emerge. More and more, I’m seeing articles that go a step beyond “why” companies should be sustainable. I’m noticing that people are beginning to talk more about how companies can start implementing sustainability initiatives, as well.

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