USPS Sustainability Management and Reporting

USPS Releases Federal Sustainability and Energy Performance Scorecard. The Postal Service released its Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sustainability and energy scorecard in 2013. The OMB scorecard is a reporting system required by Federal Executive Order 13514 for federal agencies to publicly report their progress toward established federal sustainability goals. As a self-funded federal agency, the Postal Service continues to voluntarily align many specific objectives to follow the federal goals including the OMB Scorecard. The Postal Service is committed to being a sustainability leader and our scorecard results demonstrate progress toward our sustainability goals. The Postal Service scored green for greenhouse gas emissions, energy intensity and reduction in potable water intensity. Reducing overall petroleum consumption continues to be a challenge because the total number of delivery points we must travel to serve our customers continues to grow each year. Further, we are confronted by an aging fleet of delivery vehicles and the lack of capital funds to replace or upgrade the fleet in the near future. We are working to optimize our delivery route efficiency and continue to test alternative-vehicle technologies.

Energy Conservation. With over 30,000 buildings nationwide, our vast network requires a lot of energy to support. We continue to evaluate new energy-saving technology and incorporate energy-efficient equipment into our operations. We have decreased our total facility energy consumption by nearly 34 percent from our 2003 baseline year. This is nearly equal to reducing the amount of energy consumed by 100,000 U.S. households in a year.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting. USPS generates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from facility energy use, transportation fuel use, waste generation, employee commuting and contracted transportation services. We prepare an annual GHG inventory in compliance with Executive Order 13514, the International Post Corporation and The Climate Registry. In 2012, we decreased our GHG emissions 9.9 percent from the 2008 baseline. This is nearly equal to removing 270,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year. We are on track to reduce our GHG emissions 20 percent by 2020.

Fleet Management. The Postal Service has more than 200,000 vehicles. But did you know that we also have one of the largest alternative fuel fleets in the country? We have more than 40,000 alternative fuel vehicles ranging from ethanol, to propane to conventional hybrids. We are also on track to increase our alternative fuel use 159 percent from the FY2005 baseline.

Annual Sustainability Report. Every year the Postal Service releases an Annual Sustainability Report (ASR) reflecting on performance in the previous year. The 2012 ASR was released in April 2013. This report provides information about our progress and performance against our sustainability goals. The ASR is for our customers, our peers and our employees on about.usps.com/what-we-are-doing/green/report/2012/.