Established business sectors are being forced to change, with increasing sustainability requirements forcing the search for new, more environmentally friendly solutions. The postal market is also undergoing changes. The Postal Directive, which has not been amended for a long time, does not set any sustainability targets for the postal sector, and sustainability targets for all sectors are set jointly by horizontal environmental regulation. This year, for the first time, the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) conducted a survey of Lithuanian postal service providers on their environmental sustainability practices.
“We have initiated changes to the Postal Law, including an obligation for postal service providers to provide us with information on the postal network they manage and their environmental sustainability practices. So, in future, such reviews would become an annual exercise,” says Rita Liuokaitytė, the Head of the CRA’s Railway and Postal Regulatory Group.
The global postal community is already taking action at various levels. For example, providers are setting targets for CO2 emissions, publishing sustainability action plans and developing greener (electrified) transportation fleets. Postal service providers operating in Lithuania are also taking the initiative. Some of them are setting ambitious sustainability targets, establishing action plans for their implementation and setting targets for environmental sustainability indicators.
“Of the providers we surveyed, only a small proportion of 20% responded that environmental sustainability is one of their company’s key objectives and community commitments. These providers, most of which are large postal companies, have ambitious environmental sustainability goals and very specific action plans, publish sustainability-related information to the public, have environmental sustainability indicators and proven methodologies to calculate them. Their environmental sustainability practices are highly complex, systematic and innovative,” says R. Liuokaitytė.
A further 36% of all respondents, mostly medium-sized companies in the postal sector, report that they have some environmental sustainability action plans in place, and that they also apply some environmental sustainability practices, but in most cases only partially or in a fragmented manner.
“While the Group considers environmental sustainability to be an important topic, it implements environmental sustainability programmes according to the capabilities, resources and specificities of individual companies. Information on the environmental sustainability targets set by these providers is generally not publicly available. There is also a lack of substantiated information on specific action plans and the indicators and methodologies used to measure progress on environmental sustainability”, explains the expert of CRA.
The vast majority of 44% of all respondents, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises in the postal sector, revealed that they have not set environmental sustainability objectives and do not apply any environmental sustainability practices at all. This is not an important or priority issue for this group of companies and they may not have sufficient financial resources to implement environmental sustainability programmes.
Self-service parcel terminals are one of the more sustainable solutions
The rapidly expanding network of self-service parcel terminals in Lithuania also contributes to reducing the negative impact on the environment.
“Studies show that collecting and delivering mail to specific points, rather than directly to each user’s home, significantly reduces the operational costs of postal service providers. However, the negative side of such delivery remains underestimated, in terms of the CO2 generated by the sender and the recipient on the way to the dispatch/collection point”, emphasises R. Liuokaitytė.
According to the CRA, if the elements of the postal network were densely located, the negative effect of the sender and recipient using their own vehicles to send/receive mail is likely to be reduced. Therefore, according to R. Liuokaitytė, the CRA aims to encourage the use and sharing of self-service parcel terminals.
“Among the amendments to the Postal Law that we have initiated are proposals to allow postal service providers to use self-service parcel terminals managed by another postal service provider. Currently, there is a requirement for postal service providers to negotiate the use of the postal network, but the new amendments will make it clear that a self-service parcel terminal is one of the elements of the postal network whose joint use could be negotiated”, explains R. Liuokaitytė.
According to the CRA, sharing of self-service parcel terminals would increase the efficiency and accessibility of the self-service parcel terminals themselves. Postal service providers would be able to manage their postal network infrastructure more efficiently by sharing the service and maintenance of self-service parcel terminals, which would lead to an overall reduction in the cost of self-service parcel terminals expansion. At the same time, it would be easier for users to find the nearest self-service parcel terminal to their home or workplace, which would reduce their need to use transport to send/collect mail, thereby reducing the environmental impact.
Updated on 2024-03-22