How we support our customer's carbon neutrality targets – Posti Group

In June 2020, Neste announced that Posti Group, the main Finnish postal service, will use Neste MY Renewable Diesel in its light distribution fleet. The use of Neste’s renewable diesel will enable the company to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its e-commerce parcel transport over the fuel’s life cycle by up to 90%* compared to fossil diesel. With the use of the fuel, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions achieved by Posti is equivalent to removing almost 1,300 cars from the roads for a year.

The change in purchasing and consumption behavior and the spread of e-commerce have strongly increased Posti's e-commerce and parcel business over the past decade. While in 2010 Posti delivered 26 million parcels, the corresponding figure in 2019 was more than double, over 50 million parcels. “Parcel logistics is expected to grow rapidly also in this decade,” said Noomi Jägerhorn, Director of Sustainability at Posti Group.

From a climate perspective, strong growth in demand for parcel services is controversial. Deliveries reduce private car use and thus lower greenhouse gas emissions from transport, but will increase logistics emissions. Delivering one package produces an average of about 600 grams of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to a five-kilometer drive in a gasoline-powered car. “Distribution and logistics are industries that burden the environment and therefore Posti has for long done climate work ambitiously.”

According to Jägerhorn, Posti’s current target of reducing its CO2 emissions by 30% from 2007 levels will be achieved by the end of 2020 on schedule. The remaining emissions are offset in certified international climate projects. Over the past decade, climate strategies with multiple agendas have enabled significant reductions in Posti’s emissions and at the same time enabled the development of more climate-friendly services. In 2015, Posti was the world's first postal operator to launch carbon-neutral Posti Green services, which reduced emissions to zero from all Posti’s distribution, transport, freight and warehousing services in Finland.

Jägerhorn emphasizes that Posti's climate action does not end there. Posti’s Zero Carbon 2030 program aims to zero emissions from its own operations by the end of the decade. The commitment includes both emission reductions from the company’s own terminal and warehousing operations and the development of low-emission logistics.

*) The method for calculating life cycle emissions and emission reductions is in line with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28 / EC).