Royal Mail Halves Domestic Flights to Cut GHG Emissions
Around eight billion letters and more than five billion parcels are delivered in the UK every year.
Each and every one of these has to travel from its destination to a sorting facility, then on to the addressee.
The average parcel delivered by Royal Mail generates 218g of CO2 equivalent – meaning more than one million tonnes generated per year for all five billion, and that’s not even including the letters.
Aviation is notorious for being a massive polluter with planes running on unsustainable petroleum-based fuels.
In an attempt to combat this, Royal Mail is swapping flights for road and train transport to save around 30,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year and increase reliability for customers.
Matt Gower, Head of ESG at Royal Mail, said: “We've put a huge effort into the design and delivery of our environment strategy so that we continue to be the UK's greenest parcel operator.
“We're only at the beginning of this journey, but we already have a lot to show for it.”
How reducing Royal Mail flights makes an impact
A total of 18 domestic flights are being discontinued, marking Royal Mail’s biggest step so far in reducing emissions.
It is expected these cuts alone will contribute a 4% reduction to Royal Mail’s Scope 3 emissions.
The capability to divert this mail from air to road has been ‘unlocked’ by changes made to the company’s operations, including later start times at delivery offices which allows for longer journey times.
A first wave of 11 flights made their final journeys in June, with an additional three stopping in late July and four more early next year.
The only remaining flights are currently necessary to continue providing next day delivery across the UK.
Alistair Cochrane, Chief Operating Officer at Royal Mail says: “Not only will this reduce carbon emissions, transporting more mail by road will also help us provide a more reliable service for customers and increase our capacity to meet the increasing demand for next day parcel deliveries.
“Moving letters and parcels by air has played a significant role in Royal Mail’s history, enabling us to fulfil our commitment to provide a next day delivery service to every address in the UK.”
Royal Mail’s plan for net zero
Royal Mail plans to reach net zero by 2040, in line with climate science and the 1.5 degree decarbonisation pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in support of the Paris Agreement.
Alongside this, the company aims to reduce average emissions per parcel from 218g of CO2 equivalent to just 50g.
- Reduce the emissions associated with its business operations
- Work with suppliers and partners to encourage the reduction of emissions across its value chain
- Address the physical and transitional risks and opportunities associated with climate change through appropriate mitigation and adaptation
The company has 85,000 ‘posties’ who walk up to a billion steps per day delivering to all 32 million addresses in the UK.
Royal Mail has deployed over 5,000 electric vans alongside other low and zero emission vehicles.
It is also re-designing its operations and network to focus on parcels, improving energy efficiency and using low-carbon transport modes.
Royal Mail has deployed biofuels for its heavy goods vehicles in the form of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil that cuts emissions by up to 90%.
Biofuels helped the company cut back on more than two million litres of diesel last year.
The company has also successfully reduced waste by an estimated 2,000 tonnes per year through the introduction of reusable trolley sleeves.
Trolley sleeves are used to stop items falling from trollies, and were previously made from single use cardboard.
The new sleeves are made from recyclable corrugated plastic, helping the company reach its waste target seven years ahead of schedule.
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