UPS: Your Partner In Sustainability?

Earlier this summer, I wrote an article featuring Coca-Cola and its initiatives on sustainability and social responsibility. This week we’re featuring another Fortune500 company: UPS.

It’s hard to believe that a shipping and delivery company such as UPS can be a leader in sustainability. Wouldn’t the world be a greener place if UPS suddenly ceased to exist? Although it would be easy for radical greens to entertain this idea, UPS is already showcasing how a logistics company – so crucial for the business community – can be successful in leading the way towards a more sustainable future.

One of the most famous sustainable initiatives taken by UPS was its ban on left-turns. Through this innovative approach, UPS is saving 3 million gallons of fuel and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 31,000 metric tons just by preventing its delivery trucks to idle when waiting for an opening to turn left.

But that’s not all. As air transport is the most intensive transport mode for package delivery companies, UPS is pursuing a 20% reduction in airline emissions between 2005 and 2020. Parallel to this initiative, the company is also grounding more planes, shifting from air to ground and from ground to rail whenever possible. As rail transportation is four times less energy intensive than truck, UPS was able to prevent in 2008 absolute emissions of 3 million metric tones of CO2 – no small deed for a shipping company.

The first shipping company to join EPA’s Climate Leader’s program, UPS is also improving its fuel efficiency across its fleets. For over 70 years the company has been exploring alternative fuels and advanced technologies, with initiatives such as the debut of its first electric vehicle as early as 1935, a complete fleet powered by propane in the 1970s in Canada and the adoption of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) package car in 1985, the first in the industry. Recent initiatives include the launch of the industry’s first Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) in 2001 and the deployment of the world’s first hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle (HHV) just five years later. Nowadays, UPS operates over 1,900 alternative–fuel and advanced technology vehicles.

Paired to its efforts to improve fuel efficiency and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, UPS also offers carbon-neutral shipping options, certified by The CarbonNeutral Company. Although only available in the US, UPS works with certified third-party service providers that adhere to industry standards, such as the Voluntary Carbon Standard, the Gold Standard and the Climate Action Reserve – ensuring the purchase of carbon offsets goes towards the funding of environmental projects.

These initiatives didn’t go unnoticed. In 2008, UPS received the Alternative Vehicle Institute’s Green Fleet Award, and a year later the global shipping company won EPA’s SmartWay Excellence Award, which recognizes freight-industry leaders that have made significant contributions to protecting the environment. In the same year, UPS was also ranked #85 in Newsweek magazine’s Top 500 Greenest Companies in America.

“So, where do we go from here?,” I asked Ed Rogers, Global Strategy Manager at UPS, at this year’s Sustainable Brands conference in Monterey, California. “It seems this year everyone is talking about zero waste,” Ed replies. Watch out for interesting developments in this area at UPS.

Recommended reading:
Positive Partnerships: Coca-Cola and Sustainability
Implementing Cradle To Cradle Strategies For a Cleaner World
The Power of ANDvantage