The US Postal Service on Tuesday announced sweeping plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by diverting more packages from air to ground transportation, increasing the number of electric vehicles, reducing waste to landfills and making delivery routes more efficient.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy described a mix of environmental initiatives and cost-saving business practices that together would reduce the Postal Service’s contribution to global warming by 40% over five years, meeting the administration’s environmental goals -Biden would be brought in.
“We reduce costs, we reduce CO2 emissions. It very much goes hand in hand,” said DeJoy, who admitted to being impatient with the pace of change, including the rollout of electric vehicles.
All told, the Postal Service plans to save $5 billion by consolidating smaller facilities into larger sorting and processing hubs, eliminating thousands of trips per day, along with operational changes such as modernizing facilities and reducing outsourced work , officials said.
These efficiency-based changes will help the environment by reducing carbon emissions by eliminating wasteful activities, along with electric vehicles and other efforts.
“These initiatives represent the strongest and most aggressive actions the Postal Service has ever taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jennifer Beiro-Réveillé, the organization’s senior director of environmental affairs and corporate sustainability.
The Postal Service’s announcement follows criticism that it was moving too slowly in reducing emissions from one of the largest fleets of civilian vehicles in the world.
But the effort gained steam after the approval of $3 billion in funding for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure under a landmark climate and health policy passed by Congress.
Last month, the Postal Service unveiled new electric vehicles and charging stations at a new distribution center in Georgia, one of several revamped sorting and delivery centers opening. Workers may have to drive further to work at a new factory, but there are no plans to cut jobs, DeJoy said.
The Postal Service plans to take delivery of 66,000 electric vehicles over five years. That includes about 10,000 vehicles from Ford this year and a handful of next-generation vans by year’s end from Oshkosh, which won a contract to convert its fleet of aging vehicles. The bulk of deliveries from Oshkosh won’t occur until 2026-2028, he said.
Postal carriers have persevered with overloaded delivery trucks that came into use between 1987 and 1994. But not everyone is enthusiastic about the focus on electric vehicles.
Craig Stevens, president of a group called Grow America’s Infrastructure Now, questioned the costs of electric vehicles and infrastructure. He also questioned its effectiveness in colder climates, citing a recent bout of extreme cold in the Midwest that hampered electric vehicles there.
“How can Americans living in cold climates rely on the USPS if their delivery trucks don’t work in cold weather?” he wrote in a statement.
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Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.