Worldwide postal services to go green with UN help

Two United Nations agencies are to work together to slash carbon dioxide emissions by the postal sector.

The UN’s Universal Postal Union (UPU) and Environment Programme (UNEP) have announced that they will work together to calculate the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions created by postal services around the globe, including a survey of buildings and an assessment of the mileage covered and fuel consumed by vehicles.

Once emissions have been calculated, the UN agencies will offer a range of solutions to postal operators in the UPU’s 191 member States, focusing on ways to cut greenhouse gases.

The UPU said yesterday that 660,000 postal establishments use some 250,000 motorcycles, over 600,000 cars, vans and trucks, as well as hundreds of aircraft, to deliver mail to the four corners of the world.

In addition, tons of paper are used for daily communications. “The sector therefore has a significant role to play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” the agency said.