The U.S. Postal Service launched an environmentally conscious website today at www.usps.com/green.
The new site offers consumers a chance to purchase eco-friendly shipping products, tips for recycling junk mail, links for removing your name from mailing lists, advice for marketers looking to cut down on mail, and facts about the Postal Service's efforts to limit its environmental footprint.
By far the most interesting feature of the site is an automated calculator that allows site visitors to determine the amount of gas they use each year getting to and from the post office. Users are prompted for the mileage per gallon their car gets, the number of times they drive to the post office in a month, and the distance to their post office. Based upon this information, the tool calculates the annual amount and cost of gasoline used for mailing.
In a sign of the growing awareness about the greenhouse effect, the calculator also predicts the annual amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by these trips to the post office.
The green postal portal aims to get customers to utilize the shipping tools of the USPS website. Nowadays, almost anything a customer can do in a Post Office can be done online.
The green website is one of many ongoing initiatives to turn the USPS into a green giant. Each year, USPS recycles more than one million tons of paper, plastic and other materials a year. A half billion Priority Mail and Express Mail packages and envelopes now meet higher environmental standards and more than 15,000 metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions are eliminated every year.
"Our mission is to deliver now -- and for future generations," said Sam Pulcrano, vice president, sustainability. "With every step we take, we are committed to leaving a green footprint across the American landscape."
In select Post Offices, USPS is providing postage-paid envelopes to recycle small electronics, including PDAs, cell phones and inkjet cartridges as part of their "Mail Back" pilot program to encourage consumers to recycle. Similarly, they have begun working with OSRAM SYLVANIA Veolia Environmental Services to help consumers properly recycle the highly toxic compact fluorescent lamps through the mail.
Arguably the largest initiative involves updating the 37,000 Post Offices to meet the goal of a 30 percent energy consumption reduction by 2015. High efficiency lighting and HVAC, recycled building materials, native landscaping, low water usage fixtures, and low VOC materials are being deployed in new and existing offices to meet this goal.
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