The first electric vehicles were used by Swiss Post a hundred years ago. Even then, Swiss Post positioned itself as a forward-looking, ecologically responsible company. The same remains true today. Swiss Post is increasingly relying on electric power trains in its vehicle fleet. Some 4,000 electric two- and three-wheeled scooters are currently used for deliveries, making Swiss Post’s fleet the biggest of its kind in Europe. As well as scooters, Swiss Post is opting for electric and biogas-powered delivery vans and hybrid and fuel cell buses. The Europa stamp pays tribute to the company’s environmental commitment with two special stamps showing three-wheeled vehicles from past and present.

Three-year stamp set for Swiss heritage

More than 1,000 museums display, study and pass on Switzerland’s national heritage to future generations. They showcase Switzerland’s cultural variety and help us to question and find our identity in today’s globalised world. Proceeds from the sale of the three-year stamp set initiated by Pro Patria in cooperation with the Swiss Museums Association will go towards supporting local cultural heritage. The set gets off to a start with four special stamps with surcharge. They feature a straw hat representing fashion in Switzerland and worldwide, a wax talisman as the symbol of prevalent popular beliefs, a plane standing for crafts and trades and a carved cow inviting us to imagine how farmers lived and worked in days gone by.

Modern sculpture in miniature format

Canton Valais artist Valentin Carron was chosen to represent Switzerland at the Venice Bien-nale in 2013. His art is at once fascinating and unsettling because he uses wit and irony to chal-lenge tradition and cultural identity. Swiss Post commissioned the artist to design a new stamp especially for the Biennale. The result shows that Carron, whose sculptures are usually life-size (or even larger than life), is just as big on small formats. He used the opportunity of designing a stamp for Swiss Post to showcase his metal snake sculpture. The stamp motif set against the striped background of an elegant Italian shirt is also the result of Carron's newly discovered collage technique.

Blossoming definitive stamps and a special stamp dedicated to the white stork, which has been successfully reintroduced to Switzerland

In 1949, Switzerland’s white stork population disappeared. Max Bloesch (1908–97), known as the Father of the Storks”, successfully reintroduced these long-legged birds to Altreu (Canton Solothurn). Today, some 300 breeding pairs circle the skies between the plain of the River Orbe and Canton St. Gallen’s Rhine Valley. The stork’s survival looks assured. Storks will in any case live on at Swiss Post as they have just been immortalized on a special stamp with a face value of one franc.

Vegetable blossoms have been illustrating definitive stamps at Swiss Post since 2011. The series that started with zucchini, snow pea, wild garlic and artichoke continued with tomato, runner bean and onion in 2012. In 2013, Swiss Post is giving peppers and leeks the chance to blossom. The face values of the new definitive stamps are 1.30 and 2.20 francs respectively.

2/2013 stamp issue subjects – valid as of 7 May 2013

• "White Stork" – special 1.00 franc stamp
• "Europa – Postal vehicles" – 2 special 1.00 franc stamps
• "Pro Patria – Village museums" – 4 special stamps with surcharge: "Wohlen AG" 0.85 franc stamp, "Einsiedeln SZ" 0.85 franc stamp, "Bagnes VS" 1.00 franc stamp, "Lichtensteig SG" 1.00 franc stamp
• "Venice Biennale" – special 1.00 franc stamp
• "Vegetable blossoms" – two definitive stamps: "Pepper" 1.30 franc stamp, "Leek" 2.20 franc stamp

Available from  www.swisspost.ch/philashop and from Swiss philatelic sales points and post offices.