When it comes to going green and cutting carbon emissions, the international postal business has it sorted.

And the SA Post Office, which has also been delivering on environmental issues and leading the way in Africa, is further committed to an international industry programme to reduce the postal organisations’ global footprint by 20 percent by 2020.

In two years that target has already hit 11 percent. That represents a whopping saving of $412.85 million (R3.3 billion).

This was revealed at an international round-table media session at Durmail sorting centre, the local postal nerve centre, with international postal leaders and with the American postmaster general, Patrick Donahoe, playing his part via video link during the recent climate change summit.

All made the case for getting involved in sustainable business practices.

“Doing well and doing good is not a contradiction: quite the contrary,” said Herbert-Michael Zapt, chief executive of the International Post Corporation (of 24 member operators around the world), which launched the first global carbon-reduction programme for a services industry last year.

The global postal service had clearly demonstrated how cutting emissions has had a positive impact on the environment and the bottom line, he said. It was a win-win scenario – and other sectors could learn from the postal services example.

The savings that they had jointly made were cited as a “great case” at COP17 by energy expert John Christensen, of the UN Environment Programme, who took part in yesterday’s discussions.

As for the SA Post Office, it has reduced its carbon footprint by 3.4 percent to 30.34 kilotons in the 2010/11 financial year, largely by integrating delivery routes and introducing hybrid mail (information is transmitted electronically and printed at the hybrid mail centre close to the point of delivery).

Nicholas Buick, the acting chief executive, said introducing energy efficient and energy saving measures and a carbon offset programme aimed to cut carbon emissions by 4.9 percent next year. The post office was even considering returning to rail, which would be cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Five electric delivery scooters were in operation in a pilot project in Johannesburg and, depending on the outcome of a current analysis, the project could well be rolled out elsewhere in the country.

The post office buys only from companies that are environmentally responsible.

Where possible, meetings are held via video or teleconference from a national control centre, which reduces unnecessary travelling and saves time and fuel and reduces carbon emissions.

New post office buildings now use the sun for heating water, have windows that reduce the need for lights and the need for heating in summer and cooling in winter.

l The SA Post Office delivers 5.3 million letters every workday to 11 million addresses.