An Post’s stated purpose is to act for the common good, improving the lives of people in Ireland, now and for generations to come. This demands sustainability, according to facilities manager John Smith. “We’ve been working on sustainability since 2008 when we joined the International Postal Commission [IPC],” he says. “We have been part of the IPC EMMS, the international postal sector’s carbon management performance programme, since then.”
The organisation has also been certified to the ISO 50001 energy management standard and is in the process of attaining the ISO 140001 environmental standard. “We should get that in the third quarter of the year,” says Smith.
“We are working on reducing the amount of carbon we put out into the world,” Smith explains. “We have been quite successful in our property portfolio where we have achieved an energy reduction of 25 per cent. Overall, we have reduced the company’s carbon footprint by 34 per cent since 2008. Our target is to achieve 50 per cent carbon reduction on 2008 levels by 2025.”
An Post has aligned itself with five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help guide its sustainability strategy. These are goals 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 which address, respectively: decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; responsible production and consumption; and climate action.
“We chose them as being the most relevant to our sustainability strategy,” Smith points out. “The one we are working hardest on is climate action. For example, we are committed to a significant investment in purchasing electric vehicles (EVs) for our fleet. We will have 750 EVs by 2022.”
The aim is to have zero carbon deliveries in Dublin between the canals, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Kilkenny by the end of the year. “Our primary focus is on the cities initially, but we also have a programme around sustainable energy for 30 of our larger offices around the country. We’re looking at things like LED lighting in our buildings. We have 180 properties in our portfolio directly managed by An Post and we are replacing existing lighting with energy-efficient intelligent lighting solutions.”
Delivery model
The delivery model has also come in for attention. “We are engaged in an EU Horizon 2020 project with the Spanish postal service and with Zaragoza and Dublin city councils to look at a better way of delivering mail in cities, says Smith. “We hope to kick it off in June. We are participating in another Horizon 2020 project, the Limerick City Exchange Project, which is looking at the micro-generation of electricity to power the block where we have our office.”
Gender balance is coming in for attention under the decent work goal. “Our gender pay gap report showed there is only a 3.71 per cent gap but we want to correct the gender balance in the workforce, which is a bit askew. For historical reasons, we have a high number of males working in the company. We haven’t been recruiting for a while. We are recruiting again and as we begin to grow and move to a logistics model, we are looking for a 50:50 balance across all grades.”
The EV fleet will play a role in addressing the sustainable cities and communities goal. “We have sought funding under the Government Climate Action Plan to install fast chargers in our offices. We would only need them for five hours a day and we could share them with the local community for the other 18 or 19 hours”
Fast fashion will come under scrutiny under the responsible production and consumption heading. “We are going to go out to our supply base to evangelise for sustainability programmes,” says Smith. “Fast fashion is a huge part of our delivery model, but we will try to encourage people to move to a re-use model. We will be looking at a fast fashion project to develop a returns mechanism either to the retailer or a charity shop.”
The industry, infrastructure and innovation goal is covered through An Post’s interaction on sustainability efforts, with its stakeholders including the Government, its staff, trade unions and the IPC. It is also covered by the organisation’s participation in the two Horizon 2020 projects.
“Our commitment to sustainability is beyond politics,” Smith concludes. “It is a practical and real framework to ensure the delivery of high-quality and affordable services.”