CORREOS is an active member of several international postal organisations, including the International Post Corporation (IPC), http://www.ipc.be/, whose main mission for over 20 years has been to promote improvement programmes and quality measurement systems for its member postal operators.
In October 2007, the IPC decided to give a boost to the responsible environmental behaviour of its 24 members, with a series of plans to start up a project aimed at improving their activity regarding environmental sustainability. The programme, designed on three levels, is centred on designing useful definitions and measuring systems for the postal sector. It also carries out research on its interest groups and informs about advances in the sector in environmental sustainability matters.
After some preparatory work, a seminar was held in Brussels in 2008, called ‘Green Post-Carbon Management’ that analysed the risks, responsibilities and reputation implications associated with carbon management programmes. Likewise, they shared the different practices and initiatives regarding sustainability of each of the members, as well as the best practices of companies that are the postal industry's main clients (benchmarking).
After this initial assessment, some agreements were signed to gradually improve this area. One of the most important agreements accepted by the members is providing quantitative information once a year to see the advances made in sustainability matters.
Doing so required a common environmental impact measurement system, which makes it possible to make standardised comparisons between the operators and assess their evolution. The “Environmental Monitoring and Management System” (EMMS) was created for that purpose, based on the requirements and best practices considered in the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), the FTSE4Good, ISO 14001, etc. This system provides the postal industry with a transparent, scientific and sector-specific tool.
CORREOS, as an active member of the International Post Corporation (IPC), has decided to apply the future strategies defined by this international organisation in its Annual Conference held in mid-2008 in Paris, the main strategic axis of which urges the postal sector to design specific plans to reduce its emissions and significantly contribute to sustainability.
