Toward emission-free deliveries

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We have been at the forefront of environmental responsibility for a long time – our first environmental program dated back to the last millennium – and we want to continue this in the future. During 2021, we took some important steps toward fossil-free logistics. Or as we call it in our sustainability program: Zero Carbon 2030.

In the autumn of 2020, we committed ourselves to the Science Based Targets initiative, and in August 2021, the SBTi approved our targets. So, we are committed to reducing our own emissions to zero and achieving fossil-free transport by 2030. In the spring of 2022, SBTi approved our target to be net-zero in 2040. The approval was globally first for a logistics company and the first for any company in the countries we operate in. All in all, we were among the first 17 companies worldwide.

Specifically, our commitment is as follows: by 2030, we will halve our total emissions (Scope 1, 2 & 3) from the 2020 levels. Posti aims to achieve its targets by pushing its own emissions to zero and to have 100% fossil-free road transportation, also including the value chain, by 2030. Our long-term target is to be net-zero by 2040.

Adding outsourced transport to our emissions targets is important: we will invest even more in cooperation with our partners in the future to reach the finish line together.

What, in concrete terms, have we done in the last year to reduce emissions? Our investments in the electrification of transport are constantly growing. In Helsinki, for example, we revised the parcel home delivery service was and it is now fully electric. In the near future, the renewed service will also be extended to other areas. At the end of 2021, we had about one hundred electric vans and the aim is to at least double that number this year. In mid-November, we announced the deployment of the first electric truck.

In addition to vans, we already have more than 1,500 different electric vehicles, such as electric freight scooters, carts, and bikes. We already deliver to more than 40 percent of households in basic delivery using electricity and more than 90 percent in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

Our biogas-powered heavy-duty fleet grew a lot last year and it is the largest in Finland. We have 19 LBG (liquefied biogas) trucks. As recently as last year, six of them used liquefied natural gas (LNG), but at the beginning of 2022 they, too, were transferred to LBG. The plan is to keep expanding the fleet.

We also made progress in terms of production facilities (such as logistics centers) and premises, including energy efficiency. At the end of 2021, we introduced renewable district heating in some of our properties.

At the end of 2021, we also started a survey of the effects of Posti’s operations on biodiversity.

Already in our last year’s report, we recorded recent information received in early 2021 that our sustainability work ranks in the world’s top one percent: EcoVadis, the world’s leading organization assessing the sustainability of businesses, ranked Posti at the highest platinum level, among the 1 percent of the most sustainable companies in the world, in 2021. In October 2021, Posti won the Carbon Reduction Award at the World Sustainability Awards 2021.

In May Posti was selected on the Europe’s Climate Leaders 2022 list by Financial Times. There’s 400 companies on the list of which 20 from Finland. In addition, Finnish consumers selected Posti as the most sustainable parcel and logistics brand on the Sustainable Brand Index™ 2022 study.

In 2020, our emissions (Scope 1 & 2) decreased by 14 percent compared to the previous year. In 2021 the figure was 10 percent.