Posti is the first logistics company to offer customers the possibility to compensate for the carbon emissions generated by sending parcels in Finland in cooperation with the non-profit Compensate foundation. The emission value of a single parcel is approximately 700 grams of carbon dioxide, which the consumer can choose to compensate in Posti’s electronic services. Regardless of the size or weight of the parcel, the compensation is EUR 0.05. Posti forwards the compensation in full to Compensate, which uses the funds to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Domestic consumer parcels delivered by Posti are primarily consumer-to-consumer trade, which is experiencing significant growth.
- We want to offer consumers an easy way to compensate for the emissions generated from sending their parcel. Consumers now have the possibility to make choices for more sustainable trade also when using our services,” says Timo Korander, Head of Consumer and Digital Services at Posti.
According to the climate report published last fall by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in addition to reducing emissions, we must be able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with the help of, for example, carbon sinks and carbon capture. Finnish Compensate was founded for that exact purpose.
- Climate change can be contained, radically reducing emissions is unambiguously the most important thing we can do, but at the same time, we must also remove carbon dioxide that has already been released in the atmosphere. Foresting and protecting forests are the most efficient methods to do this according to current research, explains Compensate’s founder Antero Vartia.
The cooperation with Posti is the first one where compensation has been seamlessly linked to an already-existing customer experience of a digital service.
- Global warming can be stopped when climate acts become a natural part of the everyday life. It’s a question of changing our attitudes, as we should all take more responsibility for our emissions. When many of us make small climate decisions in the everyday life, their total becomes significant, Vartia summarizes.
Posti has been carrying out systematic work to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions for a long time by, for example, renewing equipment, using electric delivery instruments and optimizing routes. The remaining emissions are compensated by participating in certified climate projects that produce cleaner forms of energy.
- Posti has come a long way in its environmental work. As we enter the 2020s, we must all accelerate our pace in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. With Compensate’s service, consumers have the possibility to see the environmental load of sending a parcel and to compensate it easily as part of the service path. As a company, we will make sure that the environmental load of the packaging materials and transporting the parcel will keep decreasing, says Noomi Jägerhorn, Head of Sustainability at Posti.
Related reading:
www.posti.fi/compensate
