How USPS is going green

Green roofs save energy

Many national businesses produce sizeable carbon footprints but very few actually do anything about it. However, thanks to new guidelines from the Department of Energy, the United States Postal Service has decided to make itself one of the greenest delivery companies in the country by cutting its energy usage.

The company may have recently cancelled a green roof project in Baltimore, but this hasn't stopped them from declaring that making its their assorted sites greener is the way forward.

As such, the postal firm has said it will be looking at green roofs and methods such as optimally efficient management system of energy consumption as part of their efforts to cut their power needs.

Large power consumers

For postal depots, one of the largest users of energy is air conditioning with ‘heat-islands' playing a large part. This is when black and/or dark roofs cause an increase in ambient temperature and as a result, more air-conditioning is needed to provide a comfortable working environment. Not just that, but air quality is also hampered.

What USPS aims to however is to embrace green roof initiatives where they can, as specified by the Energy Department. For example, in Manhattan Midtown, the USPS has converted the roof of Morgan Mail Processing Facility to green roof topping. This 2.5-acre wide green roof is the largest green roof topping in New York City.

By installing a green roof, buildings can not only reflect sunlight and therefore reduce heat gain, but they can potentially save up to 40 percent on their energy bills per month. Other advantages include a reduction of polluted storm water run-off -75 percent in summer and 40 percent in winter.

By implementing methods such as the Enterprise Energy Management System, USPS has managed to save some $400 million since 2007. More than $1 million of this was as a direct result of green roofing.

With measures like green roofing and LEED certifications, the USPS has achieved an energy cut of some 21 percent since 2003 and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, thereby controlling carbon emission by 20 percent. The company has said it is to implement new measures, such as to make its entire fleet of buildings energy efficient and to use more green environmentally friendly alternative fuels.

USPS's long term plan is to economize energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015. Amazingly, it has already met 70 percent of this target, leaving only about one third of the goal left to go.

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