ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE
As a large logistics company, Österreichische Post has a special responsibility towards the environment. To meet this responsibility, Österreichische Post consistently analyses the latest developments and challenges and adapts its actions and goals as needed.
Our environmental activities revolve around our CO2 NEUTRAL DELIVERY initiative launched as early as 2011 in an effort to drastically reduce harmful environmental effects, especially greenhouse gas emissions, on an ongoing basis. The results of this initiative speak for themselves: Österreichische Post has been providing CO2-neutral delivery throughout Austria since 2011. This puts us in a leading position in the international logistics industry. The CO2 neutrality by compensation gets certified every year by TÜV Austria.
It is a three-step initiative:
1) Increasing the efficiency of our vehicle fleet and in buildings
2) Alternative technologies
3) Offsetting inevitable CO2 emissions
Österreichische Post embraces sustainable trends.
Roughly a decade ago, Österreichische Post decided to introduce CO2-neutral delivery for all letters, parcels, magazines, and advertising mail in Austria. In addition to increasing efficiency and offsetting CO2 emissions, the use of alternative technologies is very important to Österreichische Post. With a total of roughly 2,900 vehicles, Österreichische Post has the largest fleet of e-vehicles in Austria. The clean energy for this fleet comes from our own photovoltaic facilities.
The successful "CO2-NEUTRAL DELIVERY" initiative is not the only flagship project of Österreichische Post. At Österreichische Post, we tirelessly look for innovative projects we can use for our environmentally friendly concepts.
The ambitious goal of Österreichische Post is the following: to achieve fully emissions-free delivery on the "last mile" everywhere in Austria by 2030. During the pilot project "City Hub Graz", Österreichische Post made a visual impact on the Styrian capital while ensuring emissions-free delivery: From August to October 2020, our delivery staff increasingly relied on alternative e-vehicles to deliver parcels to destinations downtown. This sustainable delivery option was designed to reduce traffic in the city and is part of an intelligent overall concept called "Green Graz". This pilot project limited to the old city should be the starting point for CO2-free logistics in the entire urban area. This would make Graz 2021 the only city in Austria to achieve that goal.
Österreichische Post also takes action regarding the circular economy and supports creative and artistic talents in the process: with the initiative “Re:Post“, Österreichische Post gave young artists the opportunity to unfold their creative potential. Since Österreichische Post provided new work clothes to its delivery and postal branch staff in 2019, a solution for the old uniforms was needed. True to the belief "turn old into new", we teamed up with BIORAMA and young artists turned old work clothes into new articles of daily use such as backpacks and tote bags. This was all about the idea of reusing things.
In addition to corporate waste reduction, packaging is an increasingly important aspect, especially in view of booming e-commerce activities: clothes, food, office supplies, and technical devices - all these different products go hand in hand with different shipping requirements. To meet these requirements to the best possible extent, Österreichische Post supports renowned research institutes in the development of green packaging that meets our customers' expectations. One of the tangible results of previous research activities is the reusable food box.
Our Österreichische Post reusable box is a long-standing success story. It is stackable, safe to transport and, needless to say, reusable. These reusable boxes are a great choice for environmentally friendly deliveries to B2B clients. The delivery process for all boxes is CO2-neutral and their use helps avoid large volumes of packaging waste per year.
In addition, Österreichische Post believes in taking biodiversity action: we make sustainable use of previously unused green areas at the letter mail distribution centre in Vienna-Inzersdorf. Since 2019, many bee colonies have found a new home there. Urban beekeepers take professional care of them and deliver sweet organic honey to clients' doorstep with free shipping.
We also support biodiversity in areas surrounding our buildings by developing and implementing green space concepts. In 2020, we introduced the first green space concept at our logistics centre in Kalsdorf/Styria and we are currently planning another one for the new logistics centre in Vomp/Tyrol. For our logistics centre in Thalgau/Salzburg and an Österreichische Post basis in Bruck an der Leitha, creating green spaces were also a priority.
Environmental Management System ISO 14001
Also, Österreichische Post strives to expand its ISO 14001:2015 environmental management systems. In early 2016, the first ISO 14001:2015 certified environmental management system was introduced at the Vienna letter distribution centre. As of today, this management system has been introduced at seven logistics locations already. The letter-mail centre Vienna, the logistics centre Carinthia in Wernberg, the logistics centre Lower Austria in Hagenbrunn, the logistics centre Salzburg in Thalgau and the entire corporation have received the ISO 14001 certification.
All our management systems aim to improve our processes on an ongoing basis. For that purpose, we define annual goals and activities designed to improve the environmental performance of our facilities. First and foremost, we strive to reduce our energy consumption, reduce our waste, build awareness among employees and adapt our environmental approach to the requirements of every specific facility. The ongoing improvement of our environmental management system is subject to an annual review by TÜV Austria.