Austrian Post to make all deliveries carbon neutral
Austrian Post has signalled its intent to become more sustainable by revealing that it all deliveries in the country will now be CO2 neutral. The operator confirmed that all shipments in Austria are now designed to be entirely carbon neutral, including letters, parcels and direct mail, at no extra cost to the customer.
The move comes as Austrian Post said it was “aware of its responsibility towards the environment” and “therefore is constantly looking for ways to reduce CO2 emissions and thus to minimise its ecological footprint”.
Austrian Post is one of 16 postal operators in Europe who aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% by 2012.
In order to achieve its goal, the company will look to reduce emissions, use its resources more efficiently and pursue the use of alternative energy. Emissions that cannot be avoided by the initiative will be offset by voluntary support for national and international climate protection projects.
Austrian Post currently delivers around 6bn items per year, whilst using 15m litres of fuel and 180m kWh of energy.
CEO George Pölzl claimed that through this new project, Austrian Post will be at the “absolute forefront” of climate neutral services.
He added: “While other companies offer individual climate neutral services, all shipments in Austria will be CO2 neutral, without exception. In recent years we have invested heavily in research and development. Now is the time to implement these initiatives on the roads”.
In a bid to reduce emissions, Austrian Post also said it will continue to search for CO2 savings within its fleet of 9,000 vehicles. The company is pushing ahead with optimised route planning, modernisation of vehicles, and staff training, as well as bolstering the number of deliveries that take place on foot or by bicycle. At present, the operator owns 77 environmentally-friendly natural gas vehicles, as well as using 64 electric bicycles, eight electric mopeds and two electric cars. Later this year it will purchase a further 18 electric cars.
