Our environment

We aim to ensure that our business operations have a positive impact on our future and a minimal impact on the environment.

Key facts

• We are the only UK postal services operator to have achieved Carbon Trust Standard certification.
• More than three-quarters of all direct marketing material is now recycled.(1)
• We now recycle 46% of our waste.(2)
• We have over 500 Environment Champions to help us reduce our impacts.
• We operate from 1,371 delivery offices and 59 mail centres. As part of our modernisation programme, we have consolidated 12 mail centres and have plans to consolidate a further 16 in order to improve our efficiency.
• We own one of the largest fleets in the country, including 33,600 vehicles.

Strategic priorities

We aim to ensure that our business operations have a positive impact on our future and a minimal impact on the environment. Royal Mail Group covers the whole of the UK. The scale of our operations means we inevitably have a significant carbon footprint, but it also accounts for a significant degree of our cost base. We are therefore working hard to reduce both. Managing and reducing our impact in a responsible manner will help us to save costs, compete more effectively and continue to deliver an excellent service to our customers.

• Focused action on reducing emissions from our fleet and buildings.
• Waste and water avoidance and reduction.
• Help our people and customers do business in an environmentally sustainable way.

Carbon emissions

We have achieved a 15.3% reduction in our carbon emissions since 2004/05. We continue to reduce our carbon emissions year on year. We will establish an Environment Management Board early in 2012 to set environmental policy, agree national and local targets and seek funding to achieve these targets. In particular, the Environment Management Board will review our current target to reduce our carbon emissions by 34% by 2015 to ensure that it remain applicable and deliverable.

Our Carbon Trust Standard certification has also been renewed. This award recognises our success in reducing our carbon emissions after we cut emissions by 47,670 tonnes in two years.(3) This means that we are still the only UK postal services operator to have achieved the prestigious accreditation. In this first year of annual reporting for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, we were one of the first organisations to add our carbon reports to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) registry. The CRC is a mandatory scheme for large energy users, which requires all participants to capture, record and report all emissions from electricity and gas used in buildings. We were delighted to achieve a position of 208 out of 2,103 companies in the first published CRC league table.

Our approach to reducing emissions from our operations is to focus upon our largest impact areas. Our 2010/11 carbon footprint can be broken down into:

• Fleet – 58%.
• Buildings – 40%.
• Business travel – 2%.

Our fleet

As part of our modernisation programme, we are improving our delivery methods. This involves putting more vehicles on the road but we are continually seeking to identify opportunities to avoid and reduce transport emissions.

• Efficiency. A national optimisation exercise was deployed in 2010 to remove mileage from our network.
• Eco start technology. The majority of the Parcelforce Worldwide collection and delivery fleet is fitted with ‘stop start’ technology which cuts out the engine when the vehicle is stationary for more than two seconds. Using the system saves fuel and cuts vehicle emissions, noise and engine wear. In an urban environment fuel consumption can be cut by as much as 10%.
• Driver training. We have launched the Zero Accidents Programme. This is designed to achieve significant reductions in accidents and carbon emissions through encouraging safe and efficient driving and ensuring vehicles are well maintained.
• Double deck trailers. We purchased 21 double deck trailers during 2010/11. A further 50 have been purchased in 2011/12. Each double deck trailer can transport 50% more mail than conventional trailers, enabling us to reduce lorry journeys.
• Low emission vehicles. Over 1,000 compact diesel vehicles started service in our fleet during 2010/11. Our existing electric vehicles have been complemented by the purchase of 10 diesel electric hybrids. We are developing our future vehicle roadmap which looks at opportunities for low emission vehicles where commercially and operationally viable.      

Our buildings

We are looking at low carbon technical solutions to help us reduce emissions across the estate.

• eCO2HUB. We have developed a bespoke energy management database which provides detailed site level analysis of energy consumption. eCO2HUB will now be rolled out to include waste and water monitoring – and hopefully ultimately monitoring of emissions from our fleet.
• Refrigeration gas replacement. We have developed a £8.7m investment programme to replace or remove the ozone-depleting refrigerant gases used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, to comply with statutory UK Fluorinated Greenhouse Gas Regulations (2000) and the Kyoto Protocol by December 2015. The project covers all Royal Mail Group business units in the UK. This investment is projected to remove 2,145 tonnes of CO2e emissions per year by 2015.
• Smart meters. We have begun a nationwide programme to install electricity and gas meters across our estate. So far we have installed over 1,629 electricity meters and 1,563 gas smart meters. We are working to fit meters in our remaining sites.
• Energy management systems. We were concerned that, as operations change and opening hours are altered, the on/off timings for our Building Energy Management Systems may be disrupted. A national review of all sites’ operational hours and plant operating timings was therefore undertaken. The overall forecast annual savings are 31,828MWh energy and 5,900 tonnes of CO2e, approximately enough to fill 29,545 hot air balloons.
• Sustainable building design. Our new South Midlands mail centre opened in April 2010 and has been designed with sustainability in mind. 84% of the waste from its construction has been re-used or recycled. Its CO2e emissions are 30% lower than in other new builds. A 700m2 solar wall heats the centre in winter. It is the first building in our estate to use rainwater harvesting and smart water metering.
• Pillar boxes. We have designed a new pillar box of steel, replacing heavier cast iron boxes. The new pillar box weighs only 70kg and is therefore much easier to handle and transport. Each new pillar box saves approximately 1.2 tonnes of CO2e in the manufacturing process alone. Our modernisation programme (see the Our people section) will assist the reduction of our carbon footprint. We expect that around half of our mail centres could close by 2016-2017.

Business travel

We have begun a major push to reduce the number of business-related journeys taken by our people. This year we have introduced conferencing facilities, including audio conferencing and office communicator. Our people have used over one million participant minutes in the last 12 months. Audio conferencing usage has increased by 30% over the last two years.

Waste and water reduction

Together with our waste contractor (Biffa) we launched our national mixed recycling scheme across our estate to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. This involved the replacement of 30,000 bins with recycling bins and the deployment of a further 15,000 recycling boxes. We have seen an increase in recycling rates since the launch of the scheme. We recycled 46% of our waste in 2010/11, compared to only 16% in December 2009.

Uniform recycling

We recycle 100% of those uniforms and footwear which is returned to us.(4)Old uniforms and footwear are sent to our partners Field Textiles. We continue to work with clothing company Worn Again, looking at ways to upcycle our old uniforms into new products. Old storm jackets which are waterproof, tough and reflective are turned into reusable bags. So far we have made 250 new bags as part of this trial.

Water consumption

We continue to focus on the reduction of water consumption through behavioural change and technical solutions. We believe leak identification can prevent significant wastage of water, and therefore encourage our employees to identify and report such problems. We have fitted over 1,000 water saving urinal control devices and water displacement kits to toilet cisterns to further conserve water. All our premises are fitted with water meters to aid usage monitoring. Rainwater harvesting is now a standard feature in new Mail Centres.

Environmental Management Systems

Royal Mail Group is continuing its journey towards ISO14001. Seven Royal Mail mail centres (12%) are now accredited. Further sites will come on board through our World Class Mail programme. The programme, based on the principles of Kaizen and continuous improvement, covers ten areas of operational focus, one of which is environmental management. As each operational site progresses through seven steps of the environmental pillar it will reach a stage where it can apply for ISO14001 accreditation. The environment pillar of World Class Mail has now been deployed at 38% of our Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) and 40% of our Mail Centres (MCs). Parcelforce Worldwide has ISO14001 accreditation at all its front line and support sites.

Employee engagement

Our success depends on our people getting involved. We now have over 500 Environment Champions to help us reduce our impacts. These champions help us raise awareness of how small behavioural changes can make big differences to our energy consumption and waste to landfill. We use our internal communications channels to make our people aware of the key environmental challenges facing our business and the initiatives in place to help achieve our sustainability targets. We also use these channels to celebrate some of our successes. We acknowledge and very much value the Communication Workers Union (CWU) support and contribution to what is a very important area of continuous improvement for Royal Mail Group.

Our Products and Services

During 2010/11 we began to rationalise and simplify our products and services to align them more closely to customer needs. We recognise that businesses and consumers want to improve the environmental performance of their mailings and we want to provide them with the products and services to do so.

Direct marketing

We are committed to helping the mail industry meet the UK Government’s environmental targets for direct marketing activity. More than three-quarters of all direct marketing material is now recycled.(5) This is ahead of the 2013 target set in agreement with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In 2010 we began work with the Direct Marketing Association to review and revise PAS 2020, an industry standard which was created to reduce the environmental impact of direct marketing. We wish to ensure that the specification remains relevant and consistent with the UK Government’s environmental ambitions.

Sustainable Mail

Royal Mail created Sustainable Mail so that our customers can meet their environmental commitments whilst continuing to market in the way that works for them. The service rewards our customers who adopt good environmental practices, offering a lower price for every item that meets our criteria.

In 2010/11 we handled 208m items of Sustainable Mail, an increase of 59% on last year. Sustainable Mail received a big tick award for Sustainable Marketing & Innovation from Business in the Community (BITC).

Sustainable Door to Door

In 2010 we replaced Carbon Neutral Door to Door with a new environmentally focused service, Sustainable Door to Door. Like Sustainable Mail, it is designed to help advertisers minimise the environmental impact of their mailings. Customers using our service receive advice on minimising waste through better targeting, using sustainable resources and materials and the recyclability of their mail.

Mailing house scheme

Royal Mail operates a mailing house scheme which pays a service fee for high standards of mail addressing and presentation. To enter the scheme, the mailing house must provide evidence of an environmental management system (EMS).

87 customers have achieved the standard and are rewarded by us with financial incentives, giving mailing agents who wish to invest in a certified standard the opportunity to recoup their investment.

The Woodland Trust

Parcelforce Worldwide was the first UK carrier to offer a Woodland Carbon service.  Customers can choose to donate 5p for a UK delivery or 10p for an international delivery to offset the carbon that would be produced by conveying their parcel. Investing in Woodland Carbon supports the protection and expansion of forests and woodland that absorb greenhouse gases and neutralize residual emissions.

World Wildlife Fund

In 2010 we published a series of stamps which featured endangered mammals. The stamps were issued a few days before the WWF Earth Hour, a global campaign which focuses on conserving energy.  The stamp issue was also used to highlight Royal Mail Group’s policy in regard to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) procurement. We are the first postal operator in the world to ensure all our stamps are FSC certified. This confirms that Royal Mail's stamps are produced on paper from trees grown in well-managed forests or recycled sources.

Priorities for 2011/12

• Establishment of an Environment Management Board. The board will be responsible for setting environmental policy and agreeing national and local targets for Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide.
• Expansion of eCO2HUB to include waste and water data for improved monitoring.
• We will continue with fuel efficiency programmes as part of our drive to reduce fuel consumption and costs.
• Development of a technology road map setting out investment opportunities and a corresponding flight path up to 2015.
• The pace of change in our mail centres will continue.

Further information

Department for Energy & Climate Change: http://www.decc.gov.uk/

Environment Agency: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/

Carbon Trust: http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/

Carbon Disclosure Project: https://www.cdproject.net/

Biffa: http://www.biffa.co.uk/

Woodland Trust: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

Worn Again: http://www.wornagain.co.uk/

(1)This applies to the whole direct mail industry, not simply direct mail processed by Royal Mail.

(2)This does not include confidential waste data.

(3)The Carbon Trust does not include certain Scope 3 emissions within their calculations.

(4)This is based on data available from April 2010 until Jan 2011. We are unable to report on February 2011 and March 2011 figures due to unavailability of data.

(5)This applies to the whole direct mail industry, not simply direct mail processed by Royal Mail.