175 years in the service of our environment

We are committed to a sustainable future and have set ourselves an ambitious climate and energy target. From 2030, we will make our in-house operations completely carbon neutral. To do so, we are converting our vehicles to alternative drive systems, heating 80 percent of buildings without fossil-fuel heating systems and sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources in Switzerland. From 2040 onwards, the entire value chain will also be carbon neutral, which will make our company as a whole net zero. This target is line with the specifications of the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) and will help to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.

From 2030, all Swiss Post letter and parcel deliveries throughout Switzerland will be carbon free using electric vehicles. All delivery locations will be upgraded with electric charging stations and around 4,000 new electric vehicles.

Since 2023, customers in Bern and Zurich have been receiving their letters and parcels with carbon-free electric vehicles. From 2025, delivery will also be carbon-free in the other major Swiss cities of Basel and Geneva.

From the beginning of 2017, all of the approximately 6,000 three-wheeled delivery vehicles are battery-powered. The first efforts to reduce environmental pollution, particularly in the mobility sector, date back to the 1990s.

PostBus puts a vehicle powered exclusively by a battery into service for the first time in Saas-Fee. The vehicle is used as a sports bus. PostBus plans to convert its entire fleet to alternative drive systems by 2040 at the latest.

From 2012, Swiss Post offsets carbon emissions from domestic letter mail, with promotional mailings added to the programme in 2017. From 1 January 2021, all Swiss Post consignments are sent with the “pro clima” label, meaning that their carbon emissions have been offset. “All consignments” means everything from letters, parcels and small consignments right through to press products – both in Switzerland and abroad.

In 2012, a photovoltaic system is built on the roof of the Zurich-Mülligen letter center. Further systems on Swiss Post buildings are added in the years that follow. Swiss Post currently operates 31 photovoltaic systems on the roofs of its major locations and regional parcel centers. From 2008, Swiss Post obtains its electricity from 100 percent renewable energy sources from Switzerland.

Switzerland’s first hybrid Postbus comes into service, operating in the Bern area. In 2011, as part of a five-year project, PostBus brings five fuel cell buses into service in Brugg, the first Swiss public transport company to do so.

The Postbus is positioned as an environmentally friendly alternative to motorized private transport.

At the PTT, terms such as “ecology” or “environmental protection” appear in publications for the first time. A training course for civil servants held in 1984 is entitled: “PTT marketing and the environment”. The memo of proceedings raises the question of the extent to which PTT’s marketing should take social, societal and environmental aspects into account.

The PTT carries out an expensive upgrade of numerous buildings from heating oil to heat pumps or even solar panels. This is done primarily to cultivate its image or in response to political pressure.

The commission procures around 10,000 measuring devices to monitor room temperature in offices.

The PTT starts to recycle paper, for example to produce new PTT forms from around 3,000 tonnes of old telephone books every year. This is done primarily to save costs, as environmentally sound paper is cheaper.

The Arab oil-producing states cut back on their production, triggering the first oil price shock in 1973. At the PTT, there is a huge rise in costs. In 1978, it sets up an energy commission, which looks mainly at the issues of how to save energy and which alternative energy sources could potentially be used. There is a campaign with the slogan “Think for yourself – save for yourself!”

During the Second World War, the motorized PTT is hit by fuel shortages. To keep its Postbuses running, it starts to fit them with wood carburettors, which means that in effect, the PTT is operating its vehicles with a renewable biofuel.

Starting in 1913, Swiss Post introduces electric vehicles manufactured by the company Tribelhorn: a four-wheeled delivery van for parcel deliveries is followed a little later by an electric three-wheeler for express deliveries. From the 1920s onwards, these vehicles are forced to gradually give way to vehicles with more efficient petrol engines.

To save costs, civil servants are encouraged to use resources sparingly. In 1909, instructions are even issued on the use of twine, with officials asked to tie “correspondences” into bundles with a bow rather than a knot. Instead of having to cut the twine, it can then be used again.

Early regulations in place on the handling of living things for delivery of plants and animals.