USPS Releases Sustainability Report

The US Postal Service (USPS), the operator of the largest civilian car fleet in the country has released yesterday its sustainability report for 2009. Having 218,684 vehicles traveling more than 1.25 billion miles each year, USPS is one of the largest fuel consumers in the country, with 444 million gallons of fuel, costing $1.1 billion, used last year.

"Quite simply, we want to be the best - best neighbor, best business partner and the best place to work when it comes to sustainable practices," Postmaster General John E. Potter said when announcing the achievements.

"As the first federal agency to publicly report its greenhouse gas emissions, we've established an invaluable baseline to guide us as we work to scale back these emissions by 20 percent by 2020."

The sustainability report for 2009 released by USPS highlights the following achievements.

• 10.8 trillion reduction in British thermal units (Btu) in facility energy use since 2005
• $400 million savings in energy costs since 2007
• $314 million savings due to reduced contracted transportation fuel use
• 10 million saved sheets of paper through Human Resources online initiatives
• 2 cents cost per mile to operate three-wheeled electric delivery vehicles

"The Postal Service is making good progress in achieving its sustainability goals and continues to lay a solid foundation for a sustainable future for our organization, our employees and our customers. As federal agencies begin to 'green the government' the Postal Service continues to step up and take action," Potter added.