In a presentation delivered today at a media roundtable organized by the International Post Corporation during the COP 17 climate conference in Durban, South Africa, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe heralded the U.S. Postal Service’s sustainability successes, making the business case to go green.

“Leaner, greener, faster and smarter is our sustainability call to action,” said Donahoe. “It’s environmentally responsible, as well as a very good business decision.” The Postal Service’s vision is to be a sustainability leader by creating a culture of conservation throughout the Postal Service and leading the adoption of sustainable business practices by employees, customers, suppliers, the mailing industry and U.S. federal government peers.

Donahoe talked about the Postal Service’s 400 Lean Green Teams, comprised of cross-functional postal employees who collaborate to identify and implement low- and no-cost ways to conserve natural resources, purchase fewer consumable products and reduce costs.

“Lean Green Teams have helped the Postal Service reduce energy, water and petroleum-fuel use, and solid waste to landfills, helping the Postal Service save more than $5 million in fiscal year (FY) 2010.

Lean Green Teams also helped recycle more than 222,000 tons of material — an increase of nearly 8,000 tons over the prior year — which generated $13 million in revenue and saved more than $9 million in landfill fees,” said Donahoe. “This is a powerful story and makes the business case for sustainability,” he added.

The Postal Service works to achieve aggressive sustainability performance goals, including:

• Reducing facility energy use 30 percent by 2015
• Reducing vehicle petroleum use 20 percent by 2015
• Increasing vehicle alternative fuel use 10 percent each year through 2015
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020

The agency’s FY 2010 Annual Sustainability Report, released in June 2011, demonstrated the Postal Service is meeting or exceeding a number of its sustainability goals — including a 133-percent increase in alternative fuel use, a 33-percent reduction of supplies purchases and a nearly 30-percent reduction in facility energy use.

Facility energy use reductions helped yield a cost avoidance of more than $400 million since FY 2007. In FY 2011, the Postal Service, the first U.S. federal agency to measure and publicly record its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reported an 8-percent reduction in its GHG emissions from an FY 2008 baseline, an achievement for which the agency was awarded the Climate Registry’s Gold Status Recognition, the first for any U.S. company or federal agency.

The 2011 IPC Postal Sector Sustainability Report was debuted and discussed at a roundtable. The report contains member posts’ sustainability business cases, and demonstrates how global postal sector members continue to make great strides in cutting the industry’s carbon emissions, making the business case for going green.

The IPC is a cooperative association of the U.S. Postal Service and 23 other postal agencies in North America, Europe and the Pacific, whose mission is to develop and improve international postal services.

The Postal Service has won more than 75 environmental awards, including 40 White House Closing the Circle, 10 Environmental Protection Agency WasteWise Partner of the Year, Climate Action Champion, Direct Marketing Association Green Echo, Postal Technology International Environmental Achievement and Climate Registry Gold Status.

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

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Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a statute titled the National Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, known as RAN-GRK, or Presidential Decree No.61/2011, on September 20, the Indonesian government announced on September 26.

The plan, which Yudhoyono had announced two years ago, details how major national agencies, such as the Ministry of Forestry, would curb emissions. It calls for a reduction of greenhouse gases by almost 30 percent, approximately 627 million tons of carbon dioxide, by 2020. If rich countries provide aid, financial or otherwise, to the country, the Indonesian government said it could reduce almost one billion tons of emissions.

A major focus in the decree is forestry, but it also focuses on energy, agriculture, and industry. Dipo Alam, the Indonesian cabinet secretary, said the plan was an attempt to follow Bali’s action plan, and echoed the plan to reduce emissions between 26 percent, or up to 41 percent with international aid.

The announcement came one day before Forests Indonesia, held on September 27 in Jakarta and organized by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). At the conference, Yudhoyono pointed out the benefits and disadvantages of forestry as an industry which the country relied on.

“I call upon our business leaders, particularly those in the palm oil, pulp wood, and mining sectors to partner with us by enhancing the environmental sustainability of their operations,” he said.

Indonesia is the third largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the world, behind the United States and China. Indonesia currently accounts for almost 10 percent of the world’s greenhouse emissions, and almost 80 percent of that comes from deforestation in the form of burning and clearing.

Deforestation constitutes about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and Indonesia accounts for more than half of that total. Rainforests contain high amounts of carbon dioxide because of the process of photosynthesis in plants which remains under the cover of trees and other vegetation until it is released  during deforestation.

Peat bogs are drained for palm oil and timber. To access peatlands, which are also rich in carbon dioxide, developers first dig a canal in the swamps to drain them. When peat is released into the air, it oxidizes rapidly, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When the swamps are dry enough, timber is removed, and then other vegetation is burned.

The burning then releases more carbon dioxide into the air. In a 2007 World Bank Group report regarding climate change and Indonesia, it was said that underlying problems were the real reasons why Indonesia was having such serious problems in the forestry sector.

The issues related to institutional practices, government regulations, and economics limited the ways forests in Indonesia could be managed in a sustainable way.

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