WASHINGTON — Reinforcing its position as a sustainability leader in reducing the Federal Government’s environmental impact, the U.S. Postal Service was recently honored with 10 awards in the Federal Green Challenge competition — a national effort under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainable Materials Management Program — for its waste reduction efforts across the United States.

“The Postal Service is proud to be the only federal agency to implement agency-wide participation in the Federal Green Challenge,” said Thomas G. Day, USPS Chief Sustainability Officer. “With more than 850 green teams across the USPS helping save the organization more than $52 million in 2012 by reducing energy, water, consumables, petroleum fuel use and solid waste to landfills, our innovative approach to reduce the Postal Service’s environmental footprint is working.”

The 10 award winners are:

• Connecticut Valley District for its “best in class” landfill diversion rate in EPA Region 1
• Northern New Jersey District for its “best in class” landfill diversion rate in EPA Region 2
• Albany, NY, District for its “best in class” landfill diversion rate in EPA Region 2
• Mid-Hudson, NY, Processing and Distribution Center’s Innovation award for its “backhaul recycling program” in EPA Region 2
• Allentown, PA, Airport Branch Post Office’s Innovation award for its “backhaul recycling program” in EPA Region 3
• Fort Myers, FL, Processing and Distribution Center’s Education and Outreach award for its “backhaul program” in EPA Region 4
• Little Rock, AR, Processing and Distribution Center’s Innovation award for its “backhaul program” in EPA Region 6
• Topeka, KS, Material Distribution Center’s Overall Achievement and Innovation award for electronic waste recycling and solid waste recycling in EPA Region 7
• Honolulu, HI, Processing and Distribution Center’s Innovation award for its “backhaul recycling program” in EPA Region 9
• Anchorage, AK, Processing and Distribution Center’s Innovation award for its “backhaul recycling program” in EPA Region 10

The Postal Service set a goal of increasing recycling tonnage by 5 percent over the baseline of fiscal year 2011, but due to the extraordinary effort of the facilities and districts mentioned above, the Postal Service achieved an 18 percent increase in total amount recycled from more than 215,000 to more than 253,000 in 2012. The collective efforts of all Postal Service employees raised the agency’s overall recycling diversion rate from 44 percent in 2008 to 48 percent in 2012. By themselves, these award winners collectively increased recycling by 7,678 additional tons over the previous year — which represented 20 percent of all the increased recycling tonnage for the entire Postal Service nationwide.

“The Postal Service’s sustainability call to action, ‘leaner, greener, faster, smarter,’ is helping USPS achieve tangible results in energy reduction and resource conservation,” added Day. “Integrating sound environmental business practices into our day-to-day operations, is enabling the Postal Service to deliver a greener tomorrow.”

The Postal Service is the first federal agency to publicly report its greenhouse gas emissions and receive third-party verification of the results. For more information about the Postal Service’s sustainability initiatives, including the Go Green Forever stamps, visit usps.com/green and the Postal Store.

The Postal Service has won numerous environmental honors, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Partner of the Year award in 2010 and 2011, the EPA’s National Partnership for Environmental Priorities award in 2011, The Climate Registry Gold award in 2011 and the 2012 GreenGov Presidential Award.

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 compared to 2008.

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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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 152 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 more than 31,000 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 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for seven years and the fourth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.