Postal Service sets emissions reduction goals

The United States Postal Service (USPS) on Tuesday announced its sustainability targets for fiscal year 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste, coming as the vast agency prepares to launch a new generation of battery electric mail delivery trucks.

By fiscal year 2030, USPS said it seeks to reduce by 40% its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions—those generated by its own fleets of vehicles and buildings—and reduce by 20% its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, which are those created by subcontractors and suppliers. Also by fiscal year 2030, USPS seeks to divert 75% of waste from landfills, increase recycled content of packaging to 74%, increase package recyclability to 88%, and increase renewable energy use to 10%. 

Part of USPS’ improvements are forecast to come from the service’s strategy to shift more freight from air to ground transportation, optimizing delivery routes for trucks and carriers, and procuring reduced-emission and zero-emission vehicles. 

Additional reductions in carbon emissions would come from “eliminating wasteful and unnecessary operating activities” through USPS’ 10-year improvement plan known as “Delivering for America,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a release. Those improvements would come by streamlining the service to modernize facilities, reorganizing operating plans and schedules, adding new sortation equipment, gaining productivity, and increasing asset utilization. 

“Our customers and partners expect the Postal Service to be efficient and environmentally responsible and I’m proud that our leadership team has developed meaningful sustainability goals and aligned them with our operational efficiency, service improvement and revenue growth initiatives,” Jennifer Beiro-Réveillé, the organization’s senior director of environmental affairs and corporate sustainability, said in a release. “These new targets help advance our commitment to being the greenest way for customers to mail and ship across the country.”

The USPS plan echoes comparable goals from other logistics providers, such as the 3PL Geodis’ plan to cut Scope 1 and Scope 2 gases by 42% and Scope 3 by 30%, also by 2030. But the postal service’s enormous size means that its cuts could produce even greater benefits, if it meets its targets.