U.S. Postal Service Encourages Ride Sharing

"The Postal Service became a lot greener last year," said Chief Sustainability Officer Thomas G. Day. "From fiscal years 2008 to 2011, we reduced our total greenhouse gas emissions by more than 7 percent, the equivalent of removing more than 200,000 passenger vehicles off the road for an entire year."

The Postal Service is committed to sustainable business practices and employee green initiatives. The agency tracks employee commuting as an important source of Scope 3 indirect GHG emissions. To help save fuel and reduce GHG emissions, the Postal Service encourages employees to share rides and use public transportation whenever possible.

"Postal employees take pride in conserving fuel, energy and other resources," Day added. "More than 850 Lean Green teams work to implement low- and no-cost ways to conserve natural resources and reduce costs, and they helped USPS recycle more than 215,000 tons of material, generating more than $24 million in fiscal year 2011 alone. Leaner, greener, smarter and faster is our sustainability call to action. It's environmentally responsible and a good business decision."

Details of the Postal Service's energy savings results can be found in its 2011 Annual Sustainability Report and on Slideshare at:

slideshare.net/dcasey_usps_com/us-postal-service-annual-sustainability-report-2011-061312

Visit usps.com/green and the usps green newsroom to learn more about the Postal Service's sustainability initiatives and the Go Green Forever stamps.

The Postal Service has won numerous environmental honors, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) WasteWise Partner of the Year award in 2010 and 2011, the EPA's National Partnership for Environmental Priorities award in 2011 and The Climate Registry Gold award in 2011.

USPS participates in the International Post Corporation's Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System, the global postal industry's program to reduce its carbon footprint 20 percent by 2020 based on an FY 2008 baseline.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation — 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, Oxford Strategic Consulting ranked the U.S. Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the posts in the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on twitter.com/USPS and at facebook.com/USPS

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service