The United States Postal Service (The USPS) is a large agency with an even larger task to complete. Every day, 6 days a week, it processes 700 million pieces of mail, which breaks down to 8,000 pieces a second. Not only is the Postal Service concerned about efficiently processing the mail, it is concerned about processing the mail in an environmentally responsible way.

The Greening the Mail task force was created to integrate environmentally friendly practices into the daily task of delivering the mail. The goal of this integration is to protect the environment, reduce energy consumption, and to encourage the public to also "go green".

The USPS has already instituted numerous environmentally friendly practices in order to accomplish this goal. Last year alone, 1 million tons of waste products were recycled instead of being thrown into landfills. The USPS also uses recycled paper products and creates recycle friendly products to be used. Stamps are now created using water based inks made from soybeans and are safe to be recycled because they don't contain lead or other harmful chemicals. Further steps are being taken to protect the environment. The USPS has created a goal to reduce its energy consumption by 30% by the year 2015. 

To help achieve these energy reduction goals, the agency has created a Utilities Management System, a pilot program started last year to provide data and costs of consumption related to the use of natural gas, electricity, and fuel oil. Detailed energy audits are happening at 500 postal buildings across the country to find ways to reduce energy consumption at these postal facilities.

Ways to save over 1 trillion BTU's of energy have been identified using this program. Many of the suggestions, like turning off lights and unused machines, seem simple to do. These simple things can add up to a lot of saved energy! Other ideas to save energy include installing fluorescent track lighting and purchasing energy saving machines. The USPS is also exploring ways to use energy provided by photovoltaic cells, solar panels, geothermal energy, and wind turbines in order to reduce its energy consumption needs.

The agency also has the largest non-military vehicle fleet in the world. The 219,000 vehicles used by the agency drive over 1.12 billion miles each year and use 121 million gallons of fuel. However, 36,000 of those vehicles use alternative sources of fuel such as ethanol, natural gas, and electricity.

In order to further reduce the impact of these vehicles on the environment, the USPS is testing 3 wheeled electric vehicles which it hopes to use to replace traditional fueled vehicles in Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona. They have also been testing GM's hydrogen fuel cell minivan in Virginia and California. The only by-product emitted from these machines is water!

According to Sam Pulcrano, Vice President of sustainability, going green isn't a new concept at the USPS. "We are building on a strong history of environmental stewardship. Every day brings a new challenge and a new opportunity to reduce our impact and improve our operations and systems."