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Overview

In 2020, we significantly increased our investment in Sustainability, rolling out a number of new key initiatives under Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure SDG.
 

Capture Expenditure on Sustainability

Capital expenditure

In 2020, An Post increased sustainability capital expenditure by €16,000,000, bringing spending to date to €21,750,000. This was driven by the procurement of 845 electric vehicles and chargers in 2020. Our previous objective was spending €100m on sustainability capital expenditure by 2022. However, due to COVID-19, we do not expect to achieve this until 2025.

Water management

In 2020 An Post set a new objective to reduce annual water usage by 5% per annum. In order to achieve this a new water management system was developed and large water users were identified. Water meters were installed enabling real time monitoring of usage at these sites and identifying leaks and areas for improvement.

Check out our feature story on water management

Innovations

Parcel lockers

In 2020 we continued to expand the An Post network of Parcel Lockers.  These allow customers to collect, send or return parcels easily and conveniently from a parcel collection and delivery point within their community. The introduction of 40 new banks of lockers in 2020 along with the increased availability of lockers from 2021 will reduce carbon emissions thanks to:

  • customers travelling to convenient local collection points rather than our offices
  • fewer journeys made by our delivery fleet
Our objective is to install 130 parcel locker units by 2022.

Van renovations

In 2020, the volume of eCommerce our network handled grew significantly. Realising that we were not making the best use of space within our vans, we piloted a van renovation project in seven vehicles. This involved installing transferrable and collapsible shelving kits which increased the vans’ carrying capacity by 60%. The result was fewer journeys and emissions with less fuel used and lower maintenance requirements. Following the pilot project’s success, a further 600 vans will be fitted with this kit by 2024.

Industry collaborations

Carbon Disclosure Project

In 2020, we increased our Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) score from B to an A-, an increase in ranking by 6 places since 2019. This improvement was driven by investment in our electric fleet and the energy efficiency programmes in our properties, most particularly the internal lighting upgrades.

Sustainability Measurement and Management System

In 2020, the IPC Environmental Measurement Management System (EMMS), was updated to become the Sustainability Measurement and Management System (SMMS). This resulted in An Post falling from 10th to 12th position. SMMS is a new system with many additional areas focussed on sustainability. We are working hard to improve our ranking so that it reflects the work we are doing and meets our objective to be ranked in the top 5 postal companies for sustainability.