Isle of Man Post Office bid to cut emissions outline in report

The use of larger vehicles and the introduction of doorstep collections are among measures the Isle of Man Post Office has introduced to reduce it carbon emissions, a report says.

Other new measures include reducing the distances customers needed to travel through expanding its collection centres, installing LED lighting at its sites and cutting paper use through digitisation.

The changes have been outlined in its annual climate report for 2022-23, which must be produced as part of the Climate Change Act 2021.

Chief executive Simon Kneen said the report was an “excellent way to capture” the the efforts made by the post office.

In the report the body said that the scrapping of the use of the Royal Mail’s aircraft for next day delivery in October was expected to save 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year – a figure that would be included in the following year’s report.

Plans to further reduce the post office’s environmental footprint include installing solar panels on its headquarters in Braddan.

While an application to put in the technology using funding from the climate change fund was rejected, the board have since agreed to using internal resources and would launch a tender process, the report said.

Continued efforts to convert its fleet to electric vehicles have also been put on the agenda, something Mr Kneen said the board had “committed to converting its diesel fleet to lower emission vehicles over the next five years”.

The first report was expected to be the benchmark for future comparison, and was an “excellent way to capture” the benefits of the body’s efforts, he said.

A shift to “more sustainable operations” was being seen across the postal industry, he added.