In this episode, our hosts are joined by the Postal Service’s Chief Sustainability Officer Jennifer Beiro-Réveillé to talk about what it means to take care of business while also taking care of the environment. Join us as we’ll learn about the Postal Service’s top priorities for sustainability and the important role it plays in the 10-year Delivering for America plan.
This week on Mailin' It, we are joined by Jennifer Beiro-Réveillé the Postal Service’s Chief Sustainability Officer to discuss the Postal Service's commitment to sustainability and the improvements made over the years. We’ll dive into Postal Services' top sustainability priorities, organizational challenges, accountability practices, and more. We’ll also discuss what you can do to help the Postal Services' sustainability efforts as we work towards a greener tomorrow!
Dale Parsan:
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Mailin’ It! The official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm your host Dale Parsan. We've got a really good episode for you here today. We're going to talk with Postal Service’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Jennifer Beiro-Reveille, about one of the biggest challenges facing any large organization today. That's taking care of business while also taking care of the environment. As we'll hear from Jennifer, the Postal Service has actually been working to improve its sustainability practices for the past few decades. We'll also talk about the very important role that sustainability plays in the 10-Year Delivering for America plan that postmaster general Lewis DeJoy launched last year. Now, before we go to Jennifer, there's someone else I'd like to welcome to the podcast. Her name is Karla Kirby, and she's a program manager here at the Postal Service. Karla is also my new co-host for Mailin’ It. Welcome to the show, Karla!
Karla Kirby:
Thanks, Dale. Excited to be here with the Mailin’ It team.
Dale Parsan:
Karla Kirby:
Thanks Dale. I've been with the Postal Service since 2016. I am a program manager for retirement and benefits. So I work a lot directly with employees, making sure that they're aware of their benefits and they are planning for retirement. Because of course that's everybody's end game.
Dale Parsan:
Wonderful. When we first started talking a little bit ago about having you as a cohost, you mentioned some interesting reasons for wanting to get involved with the team. I was hoping you could share some of those with our audience.
Karla Kirby:
Absolutely. I think one of the biggest things that drew me to Mailin’ It was learning more about the Postal Service. You know, I've been here for about six years, but I am still in awe about all of the things we do to make America move every day. So first and foremost, learning more about the Postal Service was a big draw and of course, meeting new people
Dale Parsan:
Could not agree more. This is a great opportunity to not only help ourselves learn more about the Postal Service, but help our audience without further ado. Let's bring on today's guest. Hi Jennifer.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Hi Dale. Long time, no see!
Dale Parsan:
Long time, no see! So Jennifer, let's get started by sharing with the audience a little bit about you and your background. So I heard that you're an architect by training.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
I am.
Dale Parsan:
And fun fact. I met you about 10 years ago when I started with the Postal Service. You were one of the first people who extended a helping hand to me. So thank you very much. And I've appreciated being partners with you for the last decade.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
You make it an easy lift
Karla Kirby:
So when we talk about sustainability, how did you see that becoming a priority for the Postal Service?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Well, besides the fact that we delivered to over 163 million addresses and we are so, so very visible in our communities, in addition to that, we are always rated as one of the top trusted agencies. So people know us, they count on us and they like us. Therefore they're gonna count on us to be good stewards of our environment. And this became quite clear to me when I first joined the Postal Service as an architect engineer in facilities. In those facilities, we have so many opportunities that we have leveraged to ensure alternative energy opportunities are maximized to ensure that water and energy usage are decreased and to work with our suppliers and our stakeholders to ensure that we aren't being a burden and we're being as clean and green as we can be.
Dale Parsan:
It feels like over the last 10 years, green initiative, sustainability has really become a core tenant for the Postal Service… At least while I've been here. Can you talk to me a little bit more about why it's become such a high priority for us?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Ensuring environmental leadership is so important because we are so visible. Our letter carriers see their customers every day, six days a week, sometimes seven, they see our vehicles, they see our buildings. We are literally the neighbor to many of our commercial customers, to many of our residential customers. And those customers have an expectation that given our footprint that we are optimizing sustainability and environmental stewardship opportunities.
Dale Parsan:
And that involves, you know, things like holding ourselves accountable for, for our operations. And it wasn't, oh, I feel like it was back in January postmaster general DeJoy signed a commitment involving environmental practices. Could you talk to me a little bit about that?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure thing, Dale, so you're correct. It was January after a couple of discussions with the postmaster general about, you know, we need to really articulate with a fine point, our environmental stewardship and what we're doing every day. So he did sign the United States Postal Service commitment to environmental excellence, and it speaks specifically to our commitment to continuously advancing our sustainability goals and our environmentally focused solutions that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy, fuel usage specifically, and the waste that we produce. I could not be happier with the many tenants that are in this document and he kind of put an exclamation point at the end, by stating that we are focused on incorporating environmental management policies and sustainability best practices throughout our supply chain. And everybody knows that's a meaningful supply chain.
Dale Parsan:
So is that something that's public facing that our audience can get access to on about.usps.com?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Absolutely usps.com/green. We do hold ourselves very accountable, like the Postal Service does, and we're very transparent. So on that page, you will see the commitment to environmental excellence memo signed by the postmaster general. You will also see our most recent annual sustainability report and our climate adaptation plans.
Dale Parsan:
Great
Karla Kirby:
Given that we are such a mammoth organization and we have a, we touch every house every day basically. What would you say are our top priorities as it relates to sustainability in the tenants that you've outlined?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Oh, I can't say just one, Karla. I would love to, but we do have a series of key performance indicators again, to ensure that we are holding ourselves accountable for many of these metrics that I'm going to give a high level overview on. And also that we're being transparent because these are all published in our annual sustainability report. So we have key performance indicators from everything from greenhouse gas emissions, obviously reducing our scope one and two emissions - and that target is a 25% reduction by 2030. And then, and, and in our annual sustainability report, of course we, we report our focus and our progress on that. But also there's our water usage, right? We have such a footprint we're concerned about our water intensity and specifically reducing potable water intensity 20% by 2030. In addition to that energy usage, right? Everybody's familiar with the light switch, but it's a lot more than that heating and cooling. And our focus there, our key performance indicator is to reduce facility energy intensity 25% by 2030. And lastly, the last metric that I'd like to review is specific to waste diversion. You do not have the amount of facilities that we have - mail processing facilities without incurring some waste. So our focus there is to achieve a 75% diversion rate. So that's getting recycling and optimizing the those products as opposed to putting them in landfills. So that's a diversion rate from landfills by 2030, and we've made incredible progress working with our operational partners on our national recycling operation.
Dale Parsan:
Quite a lot to unpack there, but from what I can garner, we kind of have three main stems for the conversation. We've got renewable energy, how the Postal Service can use it. We've got ways that we can cut our fuel consumption. And it sounds like we're talking a little bit more on the back end about that recycling - the sustainable packaging that we've been looking into as an organization. So in preparing for this podcast, I mean, there's just so much material out there you can lose yourself. So why don't we start with that first one with renewable energy? The first thing that comes to mind for me is you know, large solar panel installations at one of our facilities in Los Angeles. I remember when that hit the news media years ago. It was, it was a big, exciting aspect to talk about. Could you talk about that a little bit for our audience today?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure. It was absolutely very exciting when our Los Angeles processing and distribution center installed over 25,000 solar panels. That is currently our largest solar generator at 8.8 megawatts. But since then, we've continued to optimize the potential use of solar panels. So even as recently, in FY 20, we added to our onsite renewable energy production with a solar installation at our Belmar New Jersey processing and distribution center. And very happy that to announce that this project includes installation of over 13,000 solar panels with the capacity, not the same as LA of 8.8, but of 4.26 megawatts. And that's expected - I love equivalencies - so that is expected to generate over 7,000 megawatt hours annually, which is enough electricity to power 986 homes each year. So that's a lot of power.
Dale Parsan:
That is a yeah,
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
That's a lot of power from the sun.
Karla Kirby:
Exactly. We've made a lot of progress. It seems like since the LA installation we've been rocking and rolling with the solar panels. So with that, can you share with us any projects that are on the slate for the future upcoming or things that are in the works?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
We have so much going on working with our facilities and operational partners and that focus is network optimization, right? So we do have these buildings and we're focused on our delivering for America 10-year strategic plan, which has a priority on route optimization and making sure that those buildings are optimized for both sustainable routes, sustainable solutions, and with a key focus on our employees to make sure that they are working in a friendly environment that is architecturally responsive to them from a lighting standpoint and from efficiency standpoints.
Dale Parsan:
Implementing a lot of these practices, like the installation of the solar panels, these things aren't cheap. And, you know, just from seeing them around local neighborhoods, seeing homes have solar panels on them, it tends to lead the question of, is it worth it, right? Is what we're saving in terms of not having to purchase electricity or pull electricity from the, from the local grid, you know, is that really adding much of a benefit when we think about the installation costs? Could we talk a little bit about that?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure. The bottom line financially is that there is a return on investment. The caveat as always is, it depends what that return on investment is. It depends where the solar panels are located. Is that optimized for maximum sunlight? It depends on the utility companies and you know, the local return on investment for that particular building. So that's why we work with finance and our other partners on ensuring that we are optimizing that return on investment.
Dale Parsan:
So good for us. Good for the environment.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Win, Win, Win!
Karla Kirby:
We touched a little bit on employees and then PMGs focus on making sure employees have improved workspaces. With that, can you give us a little bit on how the employees have reacted to the efforts for sustainability?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
I get so many emails and text messages and actually on LinkedIn reach out from some of our employees and some of our suppliers and our other partners when they see what we're doing, when they see the, the mechanization that we have to support our national recycling operation, when they see those solar panels, when they see that those inefficient lighting mechanisms like high pressure sodium lighting is being replaced with LED lighting. So it's better on the eyes. It's better for working and it's much, much better from an energy efficiency standpoint.
Dale Parsan:
We touched a little bit earlier on route optimization and how it's a big part of the delivering for America plan. When we think of that and we think of route optimization, I think of increasing utilization on a truck. So if a truck currently has, you know, X amount of space left on it, that's if I can fill up that space, I may be able to cut down on having numerous vehicles run, which inevitably cuts down on the amount of fuel that I have to exude for the same amount of deliveries. Could you talk to me a little bit about how this route optimization has impacted the Postal Services fuel consumption?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Route optimization is key to optimizing our routes while focusing on reduced carbon in our environment. So to your point, Dale, if we have one truck that is leaving the facility and it is full or almost full, and we have that one truck as opposed to four or five partially loaded trucks that are the same size that are emitting greenhouse gas emissions. So now we have one fully loaded truck emitting, admittedly, some greenhouse gas emissions, but that's in lieu of five trucks that are not optimized, meaning that they're not fully loaded. In addition to that, with the network optimization, we're seeing opportunities where routes are being removed. So as we optimize our highway contract routes, we are also translating that into CO2e emissions, the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions. So what does that mean for the Postal Service with our carbon load? It is clearly being reduced.
Dale Parsan:
And I think it's important to note that while we say removed, we're not degrading service at all, we're able to still meet our delivery commitments while, while cutting down on again, how many vehicles we need on the, on the road, right?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Absolutely. That's, that's the key word is optimized, right? So we're optimizing the capacity of that vehicle. We're optimizing the driver's time; we are optimizing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Dale Parsan:
So as you have seen me throughout my career, you know, that I started air transportation, and I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to logistics - specifically air transportation. What can you talk to us about the difference in air freight versus surface freight?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Air freight uses a lot more greenhouse gas emissions than over the road contract routes. It depends right. If we had our own planes then we'd have better math on this, but in general, for those companies that have their own planes and their own highway contract routes, air transportation uses eight times the greenhouse gas emissions as over the road trucks.
Karla Kirby:
So it sounds like we are doing great things around energy efficiency, but as the Postal Service, you know, we are heavy on envelopes, boxes and other packaging supplies. What are we doing with our sustainability efforts regarding that?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
We've been doing a lot from a sustainable packaging standpoint for a long time. So for example, our Ready Post boxes that you'll see in our post offices, they are made from a hundred percent post-consumer waste. So making boxes from post-consumer waste is a direct equivalent to using less water, obviously using less trees, using less energy. So that's a win-win. And we're looking at how we can further communicate to our customers to your point, Karla, exactly how green they really are, because we know from Pew research poles, from Gallup poles, that customers not only want environmentally friendly goods and services, they're willing to pay more.
Karla Kirby:
Good to know. It seems like we are definitely making strides by recycling also, and these products can be found at all of our retail stores, I'm assuming…
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Yes - our Ready Post boxes are in our retail stores. And with respect to our priority boxes, we have a wonderful website where people can order those packaging and that packaging is free.
Dale Parsan:
What about the package materials that the Postal Service customers themselves use? What efforts are we making to make that more sustainable and encourage people to use those products?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Excellent question, Dale. So I don't know about you all when I, but when I get a package delivered to my house, I look at it and I wanna make sure that it's recyclable. And sometimes people think that a package is recyclable and they might recycle it. And in fact, it's not. So what the Postal Service did in 2019, I signed an agreement with How2Recycle, and we now have How2Recycle labels on most of our packaging. And so that will tell our customers whether that package is recyclable and then what to do with it. If it's a cardboard box flatten and recycle, right? We have some packaging that is not recyclable. And again, we're being accountable and transparent. And that How2Recycle label will in, will tell them that it is not recyclable. We strive to optimize recyclable packaging, and we continue to work with the different product lines and the program managers to ensure that they are as sustainable as possible.
Dale Parsan:
You know, I'm guilty of looking at a paper product and just assuming that it's recyclable. So I need to keep a better eye out on this. So thank you for that.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Yeah. So for example, even outside of our packaging, we are working with our communications folks on the little postcards that you get. And so, yeah, so some of them have a wax coating on them, so that they're more durable. Some of those may not be recyclable, right? You might put in your recycling bin. So we have new labels on those. We're working with communications on some of our philatelic magazines and publications and the little postcards on giving that consumer information on whether that card is recyclable. So again, transparency and accountability.
Karla Kirby:
So with our packaging, you indicated that the majority of it's labeled, so people know that they can recycle it if it's not recyclable and how they can dispose of it.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Correct. We're working towards a hundred percent, but most of our packaging currently has that How2Recycle label on it.
Karla Kirby:
And in addition to that, people can get information on where to find these products at usps.com.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Absolutely. Usps.com has all of our priority mail packaging, and different sizes, different shapes, different materials, and how to order them. And they are free. In the post office, I think to your point we have other boxes also, including our Ready Post packaging line.
Karla Kirby:
So what kind of impact have the types of moves we made about recycling impacted waste across our organization?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
So from the pilot that we did on our Ready Post packaging line, which occurred in 51 sites in eight states wherein we communicated the environmental components of the Ready Post packaging, just put signage out there saying that it's made from a hundred percent coast post consumer waste and is a hundred percent recyclable and saved this many trees and electricity. We did see that consumers were drawn to that. And so there was, at those sites, there was an increase in that. So our takeaway is let's communicate the good things that we are doing.
Dale Parsan:
With these initiatives that your group has been conducting on behalf of the Postal Service with our products, what kind of impact or reaction are you getting from our customers?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Positive, positive reactions! It's exciting to get the feedback from people that read our annual sustainability report. Some of these are from postal employees and some of them are from non postal employees, or some of them are from some of our suppliers who are excited to read that the Postal Service is really being a leader in environmental stewardship, with everything, from our packaging to alternative energy, to being transparent and where we are going with our greenhouse gas emissions.
Karla Kirby:
So given our customer base, being so large, are there pointers that you can provide to our customers on how they can improve their recycling efforts and help the Postal Service?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
That's an excellent question, Karla. So as I mentioned earlier, right on our boxes and packaging, we have the How2Recycle label, which is telling them whether it's recyclable or not recyclable. They can also go to usps.com. And then when they order our priority mailboxes, they can see what percentage recyclable they are and our priority mailboxes by the way are free.
Dale Parsan:
Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us today. It was truly an enlightening experience to hear more about the Postal Service’s sustainability in various green initiatives that we have going on.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Thanks, Dale. It was my pleasure talking to you and Karla today about everything that the Postal Service is doing to be greener from for our customers, for our financial bottom line. And most importantly, to ensure that we are a good neighbor and we do that as we continue to put our stamp on a greener tomorrow.
Dale Parsan:
All right, everyone it's time for, Did You Know. In this segment we share some interesting details about the Postal Service that most people probably don't know. Karla, since this is your first episode, why don't you kick us off?
Karla Kirby:
That works. Dale, did you know that Green Book made famous by the 2018 movie was originally published by an African American letter carrier?
Dale Parsan:
I did not.
Karla Kirby:
In the 1930s, Victor Green, a postal carrier based out of New Jersey was sick of the discrimination he and other African Americans had to deal with, especially when traveling. So he decided to do something about it. Taking a cue from similar guides published by the Jewish press, he put together a travel guide, listening businesses friendly to African Americans in the New York area.
Dale Parsan:
That's impressive.
Karla Kirby:
The first Negro Motorist Green Book was actually published in 1936. And it was so successful that he expanded the scope. He asked his connections throughout the post office to identify businesses in their areas that welcomed African American travelers. Later, he offered cash payments to readers who sent in tips and other information about African American friendly businesses. Green actually kept expanding his guide to eventually include private guest houses, service stations, drug stores, taverns, barber shops, and beauty salons - once they had been verified as non exclusionary and open to again, African Americans. Eventually the guide renamed the Negro Travelers Green Book after Victor Green. Green signed a distribution deal with Standard Oil, so the green book was actually sold in ESSO gas stations, nationwide.
Dale Parsan:
Carli it's. It makes me very proud to know that the Green Book was the work of a fellow Postal Service worker.
Karla Kirby:
Exactly. And I didn't even know that when I saw the movie, but the movie was fabulous and definitely agree that Green was a very interesting band. In fact, by 1933, he and his wife had actually relocated to Harlem where the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. He also managed a jazz musician, his brother-in-law Robert Duke. In 1952 at age 60 Green, retired from the Postal Service after 39 years of carrying the mail. Green died eventually in 1960, but with the help from his wife, Alma and others, they managed to keep publishing the Green book until 1967. Ironically, they thought with the passage of the civil rights act in 1964 and the banning of racial discrimination, that there would be no need for any new additions of the Green Book.
Dale Parsan:
Gosh, what a great story. That's I'll be honest. It's a tough one to follow, especially on your first day, but I'll give it a try. Karla, did you know that in the late 19th and 20th centuries, post offices, quote unquote, hired cats to catch mice and rats?
Karla Kirby:
How exactly do you hire a cat?
Dale Parsan:
Well, I'm being a little facetious, but rodents were a big problem at large post offices back in the day. They were attracted to the glue on envelopes packages and newspaper wrappers. Knowing this, when the Postal Service opened a big facility in New York city in August of 1875, postal clerk, George W. Cook brought along a cat,
Karla Kirby:
Just one cat?
Dale Parsan:
Well, it was a female cat, which meant before long, there were a lot more cats.
Karla Kirby:
Dale Parsan:
You know, by 1897, there were about 60 cats in the New York post office itself. George Cook became the unofficial superintendent of postal cats. He was in charge of feeding them all with a budget of $5 a month in 1904 - almost $175 in today's money. There were plenty of funny stories related to the cats that may or may not be true.
Karla Kirby:
I could only imagine - let's hear one
Dale Parsan:
For example, there were an invasion of rats when a cheese manufacturer mailed out samples of Limburger, and extra cats had to be called in. And supposedly poster workers would hide extra cats and mail bags to be shipped out in suburban stations.
Karla Kirby:
Well, that definitely gives a new meaning to the phrase, letting the cat out of the bag.
Dale Parsan:
Well, he was honestly was quite fond of them. On November 5th, 1904, Cook celebrated his 54th anniversary with the Postal Service by hosting a banquet for 60 cats. The menu included raw calves liver, and lamb's kidney. Sounds delicious, right?
Karla Kirby:
Exactly. I really hope he brought his own lunch.
Dale Parsan:
Me too. And on that note, that's a wrap for another episode of Did You Know.
Karla Kirby:
So we just had a really great conversation with Jennifer. We learned about some sustainability efforts across the Postal Service. One of the things that really stood out to me was the packaging. I had no idea we were labeling our packaging as recyclable and what's not recyclable. And that is a way for our customers to help out the Postal Service in our recyclable and sustainability efforts. So that for me was definitely did you know moment for the conversation.
Dale Parsan:
Absolutely. Taking that a little step further, understanding that not everything that I perceive as recyclable is recyclable. So having that partnership or that agreement with How2Recycle that Jennifer talked about really helps us as an organization educate our customers - to your point. Something that really stood out to me are the solar panels. You know, to think of how many thousands of solar panels we have on top of these identified facilities is really impactful. And to hear that it could power, you know, nearly a thousand homes for an entire year is really a wow factor in my mind. That wraps up this episode of Mailin’ It. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode, and follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, Twitter @USPS, and on Facebook.