Sustainability Key to UPS's Environmental Initiatives
We conduct our business and operations with consideration for their environmental impact. Our responsibility for the environment ranges from the construction, maintenance and operation of our facilities, to the maintenance and operation of our vehicles and aircraft, to the conservation of resources. In an effort to maintain a leadership role in protecting the environment, we continually evaluate improved technology and seek opportunities to improve environmental performance. All our people are responsible for pollution prevention and for compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations.
- UPS Environmental Policy
As the world's largest package delivery company, UPS delivers over 15 million packages daily for its 8 million customers, enabling commerce worldwide by synchronizing the flow of goods, information and funds.
UPS serves its customers with a fully integrated network that operates in unison with our environmental objectives and sustainability goals. As one of the largest users of intermodal transport in the world, we move goods by ship, rail, aircraft and truck. This flexibility allows us to address our customers' needs for cost effectiveness and speed - our ability to move air product by ground and ground product by rail produces dramatic reductions in energy use, fuel consumption and emissions.
With a fleet of 94,500 vehicles, UPS faces significant environmental challenges, which we take very seriously. Since the 1930s, when UPS began pioneering the use of electric-powered vehicles in New York City, the company has pursued cleaner and more efficient alternative fuels. The goal: to reduce emissions, dependency on fossil fuels and operating costs. More than 70 years later, UPS continues to strive to find win-win initiatives that will benefit both our business and the environment.
 UPS's practice is to buy low-emission or ultra-low emission vehicles as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The company operates more than 20,000 low-emission vehicles and 1,500 low-emission vehicles throughout North America. That number will continue to rise as older delivery vehicles reach the end of their life cycles and are replaced.
Since just 2000, UPS's fleet of alternative fuel vehicles traveled over 126 million miles making deliveries to homes and businesses. The UPS alternative fuel fleet includes:
- Propane and Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
- Liquefied Natural Gas Tractors
- Hybrid Electric Vehicles
- Fuel Cell Vehicles: In a unique collaboration with DaimlerChrysler and the U.S. EPA, UPS operates hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Ontario, Cailf. and Ann Arbor, Mich. This project is the first operation of hydrogen-powered vehicles in a commercial fleet in the United States.
- Electric Vehicles also operate in New York, N.Y.
- The company also partnered with the EPA and others to build and test the world's first full series hydraulic hybrid delivery vehicle.
In addition to our fleet, we deploy leading-edge technology to keep our vehicles in top form. Through careful route planning and world-class maintenance standards, UPS's automotive engineering experts are dedicated to economizing fuel use and minimizing emissions. A few of our programs designed for fleet efficiency and maintenance include:
- Package Flow Technology: UPS is deploying a new technology system that will improve customer service and provide greater internal efficiency. The new system is shaving millions of miles off of delivery routes annually, reducing fuel use and emissions.
- Preventive Maintenance Inspections: UPS keeps its delivery fleet in top condition through preventive maintenance inspections (PMIs). Our mechanics conduct a PMI, based on information in our Automotive Information System, such as miles driven, days of service and engine type for each vehicle. Our PMI process has been so effective that other companies and government agencies have consulted with UPS's automotive engineers and adopted some of our maintenance procedures.
In addition to the sustainability of its fleet, UPS also looks toward other aspects of its business with a sustainable eye. For example, UPS has started an internal program to recycle “e-waste” - things like computers and monitors that are no longer useful. Since the program's inception in 2000, UPS has recycled more than16.9 million pounds of e-waste.
UPS is at the forefront of sustainable business practices. Several of the company's environmental initiatives have received awards throughout the years including:
- "Quiet Airline" awards for its use of one of the quietest, most fuel-efficient aircraft in the industry.
- "Clean Air" awards for converting a major portion of its delivery fleet to clean-burning alternative fuels.
- "Ecological" awards for outstanding efforts to reduce non-hazardous waste and send less waste to landfills.
|
