In UPS’ latest corporate sustainability report (PDF), the company says it has reduced CO2 emissions by 32,000 metric tons and saved 3 million gallons of fuel in 2007. This was achieved by shaving about 30 million miles off of delivery routes in the U.S. through innovations in the company’s package flow technology.
The company also recycled 2.65 million pounds of electronic equipment and 45,400 tons of solid waste materials. It also purchased close to 160,000 tons of materials with recycled content.
However, the company reported that its total energy consumption increased by 1.3 percent. Energy consumption per package also increased by 1.2 percent due to faster transit-times and increased residential deliveries. (Although fuel consumption per package improved 0.4 percent.)
The company says it’s continuing to look for operational measures to reduce energy such as rerouting to avoid left turns.
In 2007, UPS had 0.80 kilograms of aircraft emissions per 1,000 kilograms of payload capacity — an improvement of 1.2 percent over 2006.
In May, UPS expanded its U.S. Green Fleet from 50 hybrid electric trucks to 250 (the largest commercial order of such trucks by any company), and increasd its fleet of vehicles running on compressed natural gas from 800 to 1,100. In March, UPS added 167 CNG delivery vehicles to its fleets in Texas, Georgia and California.
The company’s 2007 report is based on the third generation of Global Reporting Initiative guidelines known as GRI-G3.