The Postal Service has launched a website showcasing so-called "green" initiatives that are part of its massive shipping operation.
Its website, USPS.com/green, includes a calculator to show gas savings that could result by ordering a mail pickup through the website as opposed to driving to the local post office. Never mind that other errands might be part of a given outing, the point seems to be that the Postal Service has gone green.
The website explains the Postal Service’s recycling operation, something it says generates $7.5 million in revenue. The feel-good mindfulness of efficient, green operations is one area where the USPS is trying to differentiate itself from other carriers such as UPS, or even branding itself away from FedEx as a greener alternative.
For example, it is touting Express Mail as one of its eco-friendly products and services, with the entreaty that customers can "send greener packages across the country" for the same price and with the knowledge that the USPS is "the first mailing or shipping company to achieve Cradle to Cradle certification," that "starts at the design stage, considers energy and water use through manufacturing, and ends with a product that can be safely recycled."
It says half a billion Priority Mail and Express Mail packages and envelopes meet higher environmental standards, preventing more than 15,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions each year.
As the USPS struggles with declining mail volume and dire financial straits — it posted a $2.8 billion loss in fiscal 2008 — it needs all the help it can get, though it remains unclear how far it will go to brand itself as a green carrier to do so or whether that might translate into sales.
The Service could see relief come through legislation as well. The chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee recently called for "some sort of financial relief" for USPS in a letter laying out legislative priorities for DHS as the fiscal 2010 budget starts to take shape. That likely would take the form of changing the source of funding of current retiree health benefits from the Postal Service to its Retiree Health Benefits Fund, at least for a while.
