Our major environmental risk arises from our refuelling facilities and underground diesel storage tanks. A major project to upgrade fuel tanks and decommission tanks that are no longer required continued during the year. Leak detection equipment and a system to monitor fuel movements and minimise the possibility of soil or groundwater contamination are being installed as part of this project.
Energy used at Australia Post’s 1,283 facilities makes up two-thirds of our greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the first stage of our national energy management program, which began last year, has focussed on installing power-factor correction equipment and voltage-reduction lighting units in our larger facilities. These, and a range of other initiatives to be instigated over the next two to three years, are expected to reduce our annual energy consumption by around 10 per cent.
The fuel required to run our fleet of approximately 10,500 vehicles is another major contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Australia Post adopts a rigorous maintenance program to ensure that the fleet operates at peak efficiency, while meticulous truck loading and route planning minimise distances and the number of trips required to transport mail.
New Volvo linehaul trucks introduced this year have created further efficiency gains by saving around two litres of diesel for every 100 kilometres travelled – an enormous saving when multiplied by the 240,000 (approximately) kilometres that each of these trucks covers every year.
As well as introducing fuel-efficient vehicles, Australia Post has a longstanding commitment to trialling alternative fuels. We are about to test new LPG fumigation technology that is designed to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions as well as increasing diesel engine performance. Further trials, including an assessment of hybrid fuel technology, are currently being planned for implementation in the next financial year.
Since becoming a partner in the Greenhouse Challenge in 1997, we have achieved greenhouse gas emissions savings of 122,359 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent – including 22,519 tonnes in the 2005/06 financial year. However, due to growth in our traditional products and services and the acquisition of the SWADS warehousing and distribution group, our total greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.8 per cent this year.
As a result of our environmental management policies, we estimate that Australia Post will achieve the Kyoto Protocol target of 108 per cent of our 1990 emission levels (independently assessed this year at 304,093 tonnes of CO2 equivalent) by 2008.
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