Carbon reduction
Climate change is a significant issue for the world, and every person, business and government needs to do their bit to reduce emissions. At NZ Post, we recognise the need for action now.
Today, 70% of NZ Post’s owned light commercial vehicle fleet is electric. In the heavy freight contracted fleet, we were the first company in New Zealand to invest in a hydrogen fuel cell truck and were among the early adopters with the deployment of electric heavy freight trucks.
A note on targets
We’re committed to climate action and being transparent about our progress.
In 2023, we set a Science Based Target aligned with the SBTi Net Zero Standard and began working towards formal submission and validation.
However, after careful consideration and a thorough assessment of both technical feasibility and financial implications, it has become clear that our target is no longer feasible at a technical level and, given the scale of investment required, under present economic conditions.
We are stepping away from our emissions reduction target. As a result, we will no longer be stating or submitting our target for validation by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2025, including our interim working target to reduce emissions by 42% by 2030 (from our FY23 baseline) and our goal of net zero by 2050.
This decision was not made lightly and we remain firmly committed to our work to reduce emissions. Our focus continues to be on delivering key decarbonisation initiatives, including achieving our target of a 100% electric owned light commercial vehicle (LCV) fleet by 2027, previously 2025. Importantly, we continue to support our Last Mile contracted delivery partners to electrify. We’re also planning to continue exploring opportunities to gradually expand the number of low-emission heavy freight vehicles in our network, while investigating decarbonisation pathways for both domestic and international air freight.
How will we reduce our emissions?
There is no immediate solution, we recognise that a step change in efforts need to be made across the business to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Funding Reduction Pathways
As part of our SBTi Net zero verification process, we’re developing detailed reduction pathways that outline the decarbonisation strategy and investment required to achieve our annual reduction targets across all transport modes from now until 2030.
Reducing the emissions from our fleet:
We have one of the largest electric fleets in NZ and continue to invest in this every year. Find out more about the steps we are taking to electrify our fleet.
By optimising our network and increasing our first-time delivery rates we are reducing how far both our fleet, and you, have to drive to receive your parcels, which ultimately reduces emissions.
Reducing the energy from our buildings:
Moving to smarter technologies to reduce power consumption in our buildings and making simple changes has helped us achieve the reduction in the amount of energy used by our sites. This includes replacing outdated lights with high-efficiency LED lights, ensuring lighting controls work properly, and making adjustments to our heating/cooling systems at our largest sites
We know we can’t do it alone, so we also collaborate with suppliers and customers on low-carbon initiatives that are crucial to our success.
Electrifying our fleet
We’re well on our way to having 100% of our own fleet electric by 2027. We’re also providing incentives and support to our delivery partners to help them transition to low emissions delivery.