Posts at IPC conference recognise ‘urgency’ for continuous sector cooperation on sustainability and reporting

International posts attending last week’s IPC Annual Conference hosted by An Post in Dublin agreed on the ‘urgency’ of increasing cooperation and finding common ground between different standards and programmes to ensure a global approach towards sustainability reporting.

In a statement sent to Post&Parcel today, the IPC said that the conference – which was attended by more than 80 high-level representatives from 30 posts worldwide, including 20 CEOs – took “The Postal Contribution to Emissions’ Reduction” as its theme.

Holger Winklbauer, IPC CEO, commented: “Sustainability is the topic that unites all IPC members as posts were the first sector to develop a joint programme to reduce emissions globally. It is of strategic importance to face together the global climate change challenge. Therefore, we now need to rapidly reinforce our cooperation and develop a more granular reporting system and find common ground between the different standards.”

IPC said that it is already working closely with its member sustainability experts to evaluate current and future carbon reporting needs, based on global stakeholders’ requirements – and now the  posts tasked IPC together with the sustainability expert group to further identify the most suitable standards, to develop the guidelines for the postal sector and explore the most efficient means to achieve these goals.

The IPC Annual Conference featured four keynote speakers who shared their thoughts on the evolution of carbon footprint reporting needs as well as customers’ requirements for sustainable delivery, including rapidly changing needs and expectations from customers for e-commerce delivery. The speakers included: Ben Lechner, Amazon EU Transportation Director; Mehdi El Alami, Oliver Wyman; Andrea Dorothea Schoen, Smart Freight Centre Program Manager; and Professor Richard Barker, International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).