UPS publishes Sustainability Report
UPS has released its 13th annual Sustainability Report, which highlights its growing investment in alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. The Sustainability Report said that UPS had “accelerated its investment in an alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet of more than 5,000 vehicles last year, increasing the number of vehicles by 61% over 2013 and adding 1,100 natural gas vehicles”.
According to the report, UPS logged 154 million miles in 2014 toward its goal of driving 1 billion miles with the fleet by the end of 2017 – an almost threefold increase from 2013.
“It took 13 years to drive the first 350 million miles with our alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet,” said Rhonda Clark, UPS chief sustainability officer and vice president of environmental affairs. “In just one year we were able to build dramatically on that number and we are now more than halfway to our 2017 goal. With continued investments in this fleet, we are doing our part to help transform the transportation industry.”
UPS reported that 5.4% – or 25 million gallons – of its total gas and diesel purchased in 2014 was displaced with alternative fuels including natural gas, propane, ethanol, biomethane, renewable diesel, and electricity. UPS said that the commitment to alternative fuel and advanced technologies will allow the company to reduce its annual use of gasoline and diesel 12% by the end of 2017.
The report also highlights two global trends facing the transportation and logistics industry: an increase in consumer e-commerce and growth in urbanization. E-commerce shipments are typically business-to-consumer (B2C) and fewer packages per stop, compared to business-to-business (B2B) deliveries. This means carriers may be driving more miles and using more fuel to deliver fewer goods.
While e-commerce drove a 6.8% increase in package volume globally in 2014, UPS emitted fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per package, with total carbon emissions growing just 3.3%. UPS said that the 14.1% reduction in carbon intensity achieved since 2007 is equal to removing more than 380,000 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
UPS also reported on the progress made on its 2014 pledge to commit 20 million volunteer hours by the end of 2020. UPS employees and retirees, friends and families logged 7.2 million volunteer hours since 2011. The company expects the 20 million hours of volunteer work to translate into nearly a half-billion dollars in economic impact to nonprofit organizations around the world.
In related news, UPS also announced today (29 July) that Rhonda Clark joined the US Secretary of State John Kerry, senior White House officials and 12 other companies to launch the American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The other companies included Walmart and Google.
