Eco-Friendly Products & Services Greening Your Mail Recycle Innovation Direct and Green
we've focused on effeciency from the get-go. today we're working even harder: greener choices with the U.S. Postal Service®

We find ways to cut back.
  • We use water-based inks to print stamps.
  • We use refined bio-based oil, alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas, hydrogen, or ethanol gas, and re-tread tires on our fleet of Postal vehicles
  • We’re constantly streamlining our delivery routes to reduce driving time and fuel use.

Our Alternative Fuel Vehicles help in more ways than one.
The Postal Service has the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the nation and over 43,000 of them are alternative-fuel capable. Our E-85 alternative-fuel project put 584 ethanol-powered vehicles on the road in Minnesota alone. Since we primarily refuel at commercial retail fueling locations, our fleet generates demand for alternative fuels nationwide.

We encourage advanced vehicle technology.
General Motors and the Postal Service worked together to test the GM HydroGen3 fuel cell minivan for deliveries in the Washington, D.C. metro area and Irvine, CA—the first commercial use of a fuel cell vehicle in the nation. Our other vehicle technology efforts include advanced diesel vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and electric CitiVans, which are recognized by the EPA as zero emission vehicles.

Other ways we reduce energy use:
  • We are upgrading our buildings to reduce energy use. Our objective is to reduce our energy consumption 30% by 2015.
  • We deliver the mail in the most energy-efficient way possible—a third of our deliveries are made on foot.
Greening Our Facilities

We’ve embarked on increasing sustainability in our facilities with features like high efficiency lighting and HVAC, recycled building materials, native landscaping, low water usage fixtures, and low VOC materials.

These changes are being incorporated into our new building design as well as our repair and alteration projects to our existing buildings.

Environmental Leadership Environmental Leadership The USPS has been managing greenhouse gas emissions for approximately 15 years through a robust Environmental Policy and Programs Office and the new Energy Initiatives Office. In the past these efforts were done as part of an overall environmental or efficiency strategies. Seven years ago the Postal Service began specifically targeting greenhouse gas emissions and working to reduce them. In 2008 the USPS expects to continue to increase its commitment to examining and reducing its carbon footprint.

Read more ways the Postal Service is working to expand environmentally-friendly business practices. The Postal Service has the largest and accelerate energy conservation in the 2007 Update — Strategic Transformation Plan 2006–2010 >