Postal industry embraces standardised carbon metric

The global postal industry has this week unveiled a new measurement standard designed to allow postal operators to assess the carbon footprint of their operations.

The new metric was launched by industry trade group the International Post Corporation (IPC) at its annual conference in France and will be piloted throughout the rest of 2008 ahead of a formal report on the performance of various operators in November 2009.

The IPC said the standard would provide postal services with a standardised means of assessing the effectiveness of their carbon management policies in line with the requirements of international carbon-reporting standards such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and FTSE4Good index. It will work by grading operators' performance in 10 carbon management proficiency areas and key carbon efficiency indicators.

The metric has been formally adopted by all IPC member postal operators, including organisations across Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

IPC chief executive Herbert-Michael Zapf said the move represented the first time a supply industry had come together to address its environmental impact. " The IPC Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System provides our members with a way of measuring and benchmarking their initiatives and optimising their effectiveness," he added. "It can be used by all postal operators, regardless of size or what stage they are at in their environmental programmes."