Your mail may get a bit greener
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: The Postal Service is coming out today with its carbon footprint. It’s part of a plan to make the agency more energy-efficient, and more efficient with its cash.
From the Marketplace Sustainability Desk,
Jennifer Collins reports.
Jennifer Collins: The post office wants to be a little kinder to the planet.
SAM PULCRANO: The Postal Service is the first and only federal agency to voluntarily and publicly report its greenhouse-gas emissions.
Sam Pulcrano is in charge of sustainability at the agency.
The Postal Service’s tax on the earth? About 11 million tons of CO2 a year. That’s roughly the greenhouse-gas emissions of 550,000 Americans. Think the population of Las Vegas.
Pulcrano says the agency wants to shrink that footprint. It’ll take vehicles off the roads and conducting energy audits, and that’ll help the post office save money. It ended the last fiscal year more than $7 billion in the red.
PULCRANO: The Postal Service is facing reduced volume as a result of the current economy so therefore anything we can do to reduce our costs is essential.
The agency also plans to trim its electricity use 30 percent in the next five years.
I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
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