Four projects were chosen for the 2022 Sustainability Excellence Awards, which honor standout efforts to reduce the Postal Service’s environmental footprint.
Of the four, one — a route consolidation devised by the Surface Logistics Transportation team — was singled out for the top honor, the Postmaster General Sustainability Excellence Award.
“Eliminating unnecessary transportation around the nation is our best opportunity to drive down costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the just the beginning of our journey,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in announcing the award.
In that project and the others, “eco” and “econo” went hand in hand, benefiting Mother Nature and the Postal Service.
Following are the winning projects, the executive leadership team member who chose it and a brief description of its results.
• The postmaster general and chief technology officer awards went to the Surface Logistics Transportation team. With the help of Enterprise Analytics, the team pinpointed highway contract routes ripe for consolidation. Three daily trips between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC, were eliminated and volume shifted to other trips, removing more than 221,000 miles from the network and saving 34,000 gallons of diesel fuel and $530,000 in contracted transportation. In fiscal year 2021, the team reduced yearly miles driven overall by 20 million, resulting in a savings of 3.1 million fewer gallons of fuel and $57 million in contracted transportation.
• The chief commerce and business solutions officer award went to two processing and distribution centers with solar energy installations: Anaheim, CA, and South Jersey. Over 20 years, the installations are expected to save $700,000 at Anaheim and $9.8 million at South Jersey. Annually, the projects will keep 4,110 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
• The chief financial officer award went to the material distribution center in Topeka, KS, which replaced an outdated fire protection system and leaky reservoir. Water consumption per month at the facility went from 406,000 gallons to 70,000 gallons — an 83 percent reduction. Monthly water bills went from $7,200 to $2,000.
• The chief logistics and processing operations officer award went to the Baltimore Processing and Distribution Center for drastically decluttering mail transport equipment and for judicious work-floor upgrades. About 7,100 square feet of floor space was reclaimed and lighting was updated. The result: better sight lines, reduced trip hazards and service improvements. Daily mail tray pallet generation was reduced by 73 percent and cardboard purchases dropped by 6 percent.
The winners were announced June 13.
The winner of the Postmaster General Sustainability Excellence Award will be invited to dine with the postmaster general.
The Sustainability Excellence Awards Blue page has more information on all the winners.