How to Read
Our Annual Report
2000 Highlights
Letter from
the Postmaster General/CEO
2000 Year
in Review
Delivering
the Future
The Governors
of the Postal Service
Audit Committee
Financial
Section
How to Read
Our Financial Statements
Quick
Find index
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2000 Annual Report
- page 9 of 70
Doing the Right
Thing
Making our environment
a safer, cleaner place
We’re leaders in environmental issues. We didn’t
plan on becoming a role model. We were simply doing the right thing.
From electric vehicles to windmills, from straw buildings to environmentally
benign adhesives, we’re serious about protecting the environment—making it a cleaner and safer place to live. Our innovative approaches
to delivering on that commitment just came naturally.
We’ve partnered with Per Scholas, a non-profit organization dedicated
to bridging the digital divide by bringing 21st century technology
to schoolchildren and low-income families, in dedicating its new
Access Computer Recycling Center. We donated 15,350 units of surplus
electronic equipment for recycling. Postal Service vehicles transported
the computers for reconditioning to the Center and distributed refurbished
units to families without computers.
We’re proud to be one of our nation’s largest recyclers. We operate
more than 20,000 recycling centers, and we’re the nation’s largest
user of recycled motor oil and retreaded tires. Our stringent purchasing
requirements resulted in the purchase of more than $200 million
worth of products with recycled content—items we use every day
in processing the mail, like pallets and trays, and things our customers
use every day, like stamp products and mailing envelopes. By recycling
undeliverable mail and other materials, we’ve turned a former waste
disposal expense into a revenue-generating business, increasing
revenue from recycling by 60 percent last year.
We’re also proud to drive the nation’s largest fleet of alternative-fuel
vehicles (AFVs) that operate on clean-burning compressed natural
gas or electricity. More than 7,500 Postal Service vehicles have
been converted to compressed natural gas, and we’ve purchased 21,275
flexible fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol or gasoline. By 2002,
the Postal Service’s AFV fleet will grow to nearly 30,000 vehicles.
And finally, we work hard to ensure that even the tiniest elements
of our business are good for the environment. We print nearly 45
billion stamps a year. That’s a lot of stamps! When recycling units
told us the adhesive we used on the backs of postage stamps left
tiny particles of sticky residue that gummed up the works at recycling
mills, our engineers, along with industry professionals, went to
work to find a “cure.” Together, we developed environmentally benign
pressure-sensitive adhesives—postage stamps that don’t gum up
the works, allowing the flow of recycling to continue uninterrupted
and saving valuable time and money, too. That’s proof-positive that,
when it comes to the environment, little things can make a big difference.
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