Mr. David E. Failor, Chief of the United Nations Postal Administration, announced the winner of the 2011 Europa stamp Jury Prize at the first ever PostEurop Europa Jury Prize competition in addition to the online public competition held earlier this year.
This was the first time PostEurop proposed a Jury Prize, in addition to the online public competition. This means that there are two prizes about Europa stamps: one coming from the results of the online competition and one coming from the Jury.

The Jury Composed of:
David E. Failor, President, United States
Marc Taraskoff, Designer, Belgium
Dr Guy Coutant, Philatelist expert, Belgium
Jan Sertons, PostNL, The Netherlands
Jurgen Haepers, http://www.europa-stamps.blogspot.com/www.europa-stamps.blogspot.com<//a>,
Switzerland Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany
Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany

And the winner for the Jury Prize2011 is: Cyprus

The results were announced this morning by Mr. David E. Sailor, Chief of the United Nations Postal Administration and our Jury President at the Brussels Town Hall and the prize itself will be handed out during our Plenary Assembly In Istanbul on the 12th October, just before we announced the winners of the online competition.

Congratulations to Cyprus.
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Swiss Post intends to install photovoltaic systems on the roofs of more than 20 of its business premises. It has also decided to make its fleet of letter delivery scooters entirely electric.
These measures constitute part of the "pro clima" programme through which Swiss Post is channelling its commitment to climate protection.
The basis for this is the sustainability strategy and its objective of reducing annual CO2 emissions by 15,000 tonnes by 2013. A series of additional measures undertaken throughout the company will help achieve this goal. This includes running 140 gas-powered delivery vehicles on 100 percent biogas, training drivers in the energy-saving "Eco-Drive" driving style and expanding the fleet of hybrid Postbuses by a further ten vehicles.

Press Release

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Estonian Post has recently completed its traditional bicycle tour, tenth in series. The tour lasted from 9^th to 10^th of July and the total length of the route was around 210 kilometres.

The close partners in the event were Estonian Police and Boarder Guards (securing the tour), Coca-Cola HBC Estonia (drinks for all cyclers), Falk Autoabi (technical service of vehicles), Regio (map publisher). Actually, Estonian Post couldn´t have the tour like this without all of them.

Estonian Post is the member of European Road Safety Charter and the Bicycle tour is one of our commitments made in the framework of this charter.

The idea of the tour is to promote road safety and healthy way of life as well as to introduce our postal company and importance of its social role. The motto of the tour is “I want to drive safely” and the goal is to promote safe cycling – how to be seen in traffic as well as how important it is to use a bicycle which is in a good technical condition and to wear safety equipment. During last ten years 144 cyclists have been killed in the traffic accidents in Estonia but the number had been smaller if all of them would have worn the helmet.

During the tour there were stops at towns and villages, where all local people were invited to have there bicycles maintained and to hear how to drive safely, also reflectors were attached to bikes. In addition, some social work was done – in Väike-Maarja town cyclists repaired the Lurich park´s pavements and loaded old furniture to the container at the local waste plant. Cyclists had also good opportunity to visit local museums to find out more about the specifics of local lives.

All together there were around 70 cyclists participating in the tour. The interest towards this event has been increasing from year to year among Estonian Post employees, partners and guests. Among the others, also the representatives of French La Poste, Mr Lopez, and of Quotas GMBH, Mr Ebering and Mr Knuth, were attending for the second tour already. The value for the participants is to discover places at there home country, while doing sports, to show good example of driving the bicycle and to have an excellent feeling of unity.  

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The postal industry delivers millions of letters and parcels each day and is one of the everyday facts of life for European citizens. As such, the industry takes its environmental impact seriously and has committed to reducing its CO2 emissions. PostEurop, the European association of public postal operators, has today released the findings of its Green Post project, funded as part of the European Commission’s Sustainable Intelligent Energy Europe programme.

The Green Post project demonstrated the potential savings in carbon emissions which could be made by greening the postal fleet in Europe. The benefits of the project went beyond the environmental to the economic as analysis showed that substantial cost savings can also be made by upgrading the fleet to more energy-efficient and environmentally-sound vehicles.

Postal services in Belgium, Hungary, Italy as well as Bulgaria through cooperation with University of Rousse Angel Kanchev, took part in the project as a test case to trial electric and hybrid vehicles in a wide range of conditions. These postal services are front-runners in reducing the environmental impact of their postal delivery services.

PostEurop Secretary General Botond Szebeny said “Postal services touch the daily lives of European citizens, so it is right that our industry takes a leadership role in terms of sustainability. The Green Post project showed how the three pillars of sustainable development - environmental, economic and social - can be met by greening the postal fleet.

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PostEurop, Universal Postal Union (UPU) and International Post Corporation (IPC) have finalized the common “GHG Inventory standard for the Postal sector” attached. 

The standard is an advanced methodology that the postal operators can now use to collect comprehensive data about their greenhouse gas emissions in a much consistent manner. The tool provides information on quantitative reporting, how and where to collect relevant data as well as explanations on the right indicators to use for the postal sector.

The data collected will enable us to better assess the greenhouse gas emissions of postal operators in Europe and develop concrete measures to further help these operators reduce their carbon emissions.

The new methodology is based on documents from the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the International Energy Agency, the Global Reporting Initiative and the ISO 14000 standards.

Members of the PostEurop Greenhouse Gas Reduction programme will benefit fully from using this guide, following its consistent and systematic approach.  PostEurop will refer to the guide in conjunction with programme activities and continue to drive the programme initiative as well as support and guide members at all times.
Download the document

published: 16.03.2010

MaltaPost p.l.c. is committed to playing a leading and effective role in our society while also tangibly proving itself to be a responsible and caring institution in the community in which it operates.  As part of MaltaPost p.l.c.’s Corporate Social Responsibility it supports initiatives related to the reduction of our carbon footprint which has become a significant element in today’s world.

In this regard, MaltaPost p.l.c. has introduced the first postal eco friendly electronic vehicle.  Low carbon transport and energy efficiency stand to become important considerations for MaltaPost p.l.c. when assessing processes and projects in the coming years.  This vehicle is able to hold voluminous mail items such as parcels and other bulky items which will enable the Company to deliver mail to its clients in the best condition. These vehicles are electrically powered, silent and completely without exhausts making them very environmentally friendly.

During a staff award winning ceremony organised by MaltaPost in January 2010 a special award was presented to Ms. Lorraine Pace in recognition for her being the first Postal Operator to use this eco friendly electric vehicle on her daily deliveries.

Press Release

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published: 01.03.2010 

Environmentally sustainable development involves changes in behaviour as well as technology. Andrew Pickering talks with PostEurop's Stéphanie Scouppe
See the article on Postal Technology International

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PostEurop and its Members Kick-Off the Green Fleet Forum

published: 10.02.2010

PostEurop, European Public Postal Operators including the Royal Mail, P&T Luxembourg, TNT, Itella, CTT Correios de Portugal, Deutsche Post DHL, Groupe La Poste, Poste Italiane, La Poste- De Post (Belgium), Posten Norge and Magyar Posta as well as industry stakeholders gathered today in Brussels to kick-off the PostEurop Green Fleet Forum aimed at addressing many challenges faced by European Public Postal Operators transportation seeking climate-neutral solutions.
press release

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Customers choose climate protection project for Swiss Post

published: 29.01.2010

At Swiss Post, customers have been able to offset the CO2 effect of mailing letters, parcels and goods with the "pro clima" surcharge for the past year. The CO2 emissions resulting from the 55 million "pro clima" items mailed in 2009 will now be offset via a waste disposal gas power plant in Turkey, recognised by the World Bank as the best environmental project in 2009. This was decided by 61% of 2691 Swiss Post customers in an online vote.

Read more

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Greening the Post at Copenhagen

published: 07.12.2009

Joint effort with UPU to represent Global Postal Sector and its environmental intitatives at United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP15.

UPU press kit for Copenhagen

UPU and Climate Change

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De Post-La Poste to substantially cut its CO2 emissions together with WWF Belgium

published: 02.12.2009

On the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen De Post-La Poste has announced its commitment to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 35 per cent with the support of WWF Belgium. That commitment is just one of the aspects of the three-year partnership established by De Post-La Poste and WWF Belgium.

CEO Johnny Thijs affirmed: "Environmental protection is a cornerstone of our commitment to being a sustainable business. Our customers can be confident that their letters and parcels are delivered with respect for the environment".

press release

Belgium Post and the environment

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Eesti Post  joins PostEurop Green House Gas Reduction Programme

published: 12.11.2009

Eesti Post, postal operator in Estonia and member of PostEurop, joins the Green House Gas Reduction Programme as of the year 2010, bringing the total participants to 26 PostEurop members.  

Eesti Post, our postal operator in Estonia has decided to follow the footsteps of the 25 participating European postal operators and join as an observer from 2010 onwards. 

“Eesti Post is confident that joining the initiative and with mutual efforts will demonstrate postal operators’ goodwill and bring closer the global targets for reducing CO2 emissions for the next decades.“  commented Mr. Ahti Kallaste, Chairman of the Board in Eesti Post.

press release

see also Eesti post environmental collaboration with Unicef 

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Ingemar Persson at Post Expo 2009, Hannover 
link

PostEurop Secretary General will participate at the Panel on" EnvironmentThe postal sector and climate change from the global environmental perspective"

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