Postal operators participating in the IPC Sustainability Programme have saved more than 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions since 2008 – and around €1.7 billion in overheads at the same time. This is according to the IPS Sustainability Report that was released last week.

Twenty postal operators on five continents participate in the programme. The IPC Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System (EMMS) remains one of the few, service sector-wide initiative responding to the risks posed by climate change.

When the EMMS was agreed in 2008, the participants set themselves two targets for 2020. The first was to achieve a score of at least 90% in carbon management proficiency. The other was to reduce their combined carbon emissions by 20%. That emissions target was reached in 2014 so the next reduction target was set – reducing total carbon emissions per item of letter mail and per parcel item by 20% by 2025. This target focuses on delivery efficiency, and has also broadened the scope of the EMMS programme to include outsourced transport. It was approved by the Science Based Target (SBT) initiative.

The IPC EMMS participants achieved an overall carbon management proficiency of 88% in 2017, which is up 32% from 2008 and only 2% short of the 2020 target. This amounts to an annual increase of 3.6%.

Holger Winklbauer, CEO of IPC said: “The participating posts have maintained momentum in their successes despite the challenging industry trends. Alongside the impressive collective achievements of the group, many posts stand out at the individual level. Ten posts have now surpassed the 90% target, up from seven in 2016, while a further six achieved overall scores of at least 80%.”