4 Environmental value performance indicators

For our environmental value key performance indicators, the trends and explanations are elaborated on in the business report. For environmental value those are the CO₂ efficiency and share of emission-free delivery.

4.1 CO₂ efficiency and emission-free delivery

As a postal and logistic solutions provider, it is clear we have an impact on the environment, and that our operations emit carbon as well as other emissions. In the 'Environmental value' chapter, we explained our strategy to reduce our environmental impact, the development in our performance and our short and long-term targets. In our risk management process we evaluate physical, regulatory and reputational climate change-related risks. We identified that our main risks relate to not meeting our long-term reduction targets. No significant physical and regulatory risks climate change related risks were identified during 2021.

PostNL CO₂ efficiency as indicated
2017 - 2021

Since 2019 we steer on two key performance indicators to monitor our progress in reducing environmental impact, CO₂ efficiency of our own operations and emission-free delivery of parcels and mail in the Benelux, by ourselves and by our delivery partners (scope 3).

Progressing on these two metrics cover the main elements of our business to achieve our long-term formal absolute and relative CO₂ targets until 2030, which are validated as being in line with the Paris climate agreement by the Science based Target Initiative (SBTi).

In line with our long-term planning, we expect to scale up the share of electric vehicles in our own fleet as quickly as feasible, which requires a preparation of infrastructure, including charging stations. In 2021 we included these key performance indicators in our annual target setting and steer more actively on the progress on our long-term target.

CO₂ efficiency

We measure our CO₂ efficiency as the total CO₂ emissions from our own operations, both fleet and buildings, expressed per kilometre transported. The total transported kilometres include the kilometres of all our networks and both motorised and unmotorised (foot and bike). We monitor the progress on our targets through the relative improvement of the CO₂ per kilometres compared to the base year 2017. The CO₂ efficiency was 203 grammes per kilometre in 2021, which was mainly a result of renewable fuels. In 2021 we scaled the use of renewable diesel at the expense of diesel in both small and large trucks, and intensified the use of Bio-LNG at our large trucks fleet. This led to 20% less diesel tanked compared to 2020 and 86% more Bio-LNG tanked compared to 2020.

Emission-free delivery

In 2018, we introduced a target to deliver 100% of our mail and parcels emmission-free in the last-mile in the Benelux by 2030, which we report as the share of emission-free kilometres compared to the total kilometres transported. This includes kilometres from our own operations and of our delivery partners and includes also the collection of mail and parcels with small trucks and vans and other light vehicles.

The share of emission-free last-mile delivery of mail and parcels was 20% in 2021, which was mainly a result of the 50 million kilometres we travelled by foot and bicycle to deliver mail in the Netherlands.

During the year we worked on an improved model to calculate our CO₂ emissions by air. This will improve our calculations. From 2022 we will use this model, which is based on aircraft types and load factor. This is different from our current method which is based on generals and estimations.

More information about our CO₂ efficiency and emission-free delivery can be found in the 'Environmental value' chapter.

4.2 Carbon footprint

PostNL Carbon footprint in kilotonnes CO2e
2017 - 2021

Scope 1

Our gross scope 1 emissions were 7 kilotoness lower than in 2020. We realised a decrease in the emissions from all our transport activities. In 2020 we decided to source the natural gas we use sustainably by using the market-based instrument of purchasing Guarantees of Origin in relation to green gas.

The 7 kilotonnes decrease in transport-related CO₂ is mainly related to the carbon emissions of our large trucks, due to the use of renewable fuels. In total, we drove 14% more kilometres by large trucks compared to last year. This increase was a combination of volume growth and an increased share of the total kilometres by our own fleet, compared to outsourced transport. The growth in kilometres did not lead to a growth in CO₂ emissions. By implementing renewable fuels and replacing petrol motorcycles for electric variants we managed to grow in a sustainable way.

Scope 2

Our gross scope 2 emissions remained stable at 0 kilotonnes in 2020 (2019: 0). Our nominal electricity consumption decreased by 10 million kWh to 66 million kWh in 2021 (2020: 76 million kWh). The reasons for the decrease have been detailed in the section 'Energy efficiency of buildings'. We stimulate the use of sustainable electricity in our buildings and use the market-based instrument of purchasing Guarantees of Origin to ensure our electricity consumption is based on renewable energy. This resulted in gross scope 2 emissions of 0.

PostNL uses the market-based method for our formal reporting of our scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. In accordance with the GHG protocol, we also calculated our location-based scope 2 emissions, which amounted to 28 kt CO₂ in 2021.

Scope 3

The gross scope 3 emissions grew by 5.5% compared to 2020. The majority of these emissions were related to outsourced transport activities both in the Benelux and beyond.

Outsourced transport

The total emissions from outsourced transport increased by 8 kilotonnes to 184 in 2021. Main developments that contribute to this 5% increase are:

• More outsourced activities in the Benelux as result of the growth in e-commerce, particularly at large transport and parcel delivery in Netherlands and Belgium (+9 ktCO₂);

• Business growth at smaller logistic networks as a consequence of e-commerce growth, stimulated by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting closure of physical stores (+2 ktCO₂);

• Data quality improvements for smaller logistic networks (-3 ktCO₂).

Other scope 3 emissions

Due to Covid-19, our office employees had to work from home for the majority of the year. This led to a decrease in the use of company cars. On the other hand, employee commuting emissions increased despite a decrease in our workforce. This can be explained by centralisation in our mail business which resulted in a grewing commuting distance. This results in increasing CO₂ emissions for increasing employee commuting.

We purchased Gold Standard credits to offset 25 kilotonnes of carbon emissions from company cars and business travel and employee commuting, resulting in net scope 3 CO₂ emissions of 184 kilotonnes (2020: 176 kilotonnes).

4.3 Energy consumption

PostNL Energy consumption in terajoules
2017 - 2021

Buildings

The energy we use in buildings is produced for the heating of our buildings, running our machines and installations and for lighting. The energy we consumed in our buildings decreased compared to 2020 by 10 million kWh which is equal to 13%. Different business developments contributed to this decrease:

• Data quality improvement for Parcels in Belgium (-5 million kWh);

• LED lightning and solar panels at the Mail sorting centres (-3.5 million kWh);

• Volume growth, the opening of the small parcel sorting centre (SPSC) and sorting centre in Westzaan (+3 million kWh);

• Disposal of Cendris (-1.5 million kWh);

• Covid-19 pandemic, closure of our old headquarters for one month and better energy efficiency in the new headquarter (-1 million kWh)

Due to the scale-up at our Parcel operation, we delivered 14% more parcels than in 2020. Consequently, we increased our sorting capacity leading to an extra sorting centre in Westzaan and the opening of our SPSC and therefore an increase in energy consumption. At Mail we saw volume stabilization. This did not led to extra energy use, as a result of investments in LED lighting and solar panels at sorting centres.

Fleet

Energy consumption of our own fleet increased by 3% in 2021 compared to 2020. This increase was mainly due to increasing volumes in our network, requiring more transport activity from our fleet. The increase was partly offset by the investments in less energy-intensive LNG large trucks. In addition, we rolled out electric three-wheel scooters at Mail which replaces more energy-intensive petrol scooters.

The expected growth in our activities will likely result in a higher energy demand in years to come. We aim to minimise this by being as efficient as possible in our operations. At the same time, we focus on using less energy-intensive vehicles. For our electricity demand, we continue to invest in solar panels to generate as much renewable energy as possible ourselves. This not only reduces our environmental impact, but also stabilises our cost base in an increasingly volatile energy market.

4.4 Energy efficiency of buildings

PostNL Buildings in terajoules
2017 - 2021

Our electricity consumption reduced by 14%, which is further explained in the energy consumption paragraph before. The LED lighting we installed at most of our parcel sorting centres partly offset the extra energy consumed by our sorting machines.

2021 was a comparable year in terms of solar energy. The share of renewable electricity compared to our total energy consumption was 7%, as in 2020. This represents around 44% of the parcel sorting centres' total annually energy consumption, which is 5% lower compared to 2020.

Due to data quality improvement and the use of LED lightning, the energy consumption per square meter decreased 15% compared to 2020.

4.5 Energy efficiency of fleet

PostNL Fleet as indicated
2017 - 2021

The energy consumption of our large trucks increased by 7% compared to 2020, while energy consumption from small trucks, scooters and bikes remained relatively stable. The increase in energy consumption from large trucks was a result of the increase in volume, expansion of our fleet and and a higher share of kilometres with our own trucks, compared to outsourced kilometres. We invested in LNG and diesel large trucks that are more efficient in terms of energy consumption. A part of these replaced older trucks and, at the same time, we also used part of these for our fleet expansion.

The energy consumption of small trucks marginally decreased during 2021. As the majority of our extra volumes was delivered by partners, the growth in kilometres was relatively small. In addition, we increased the load factors of our parcel delivery vans.

Due to a slightly lower number of electric kilometres with e-cargo bikes and the replacement of petrol scooters with electric scooters, the energy consumption from scooters and bikes decreased by 3 TJ. Electric scooters consume less energy compared to petrol scooters.

The above results in a comparable energy efficiency of fleet, which is a consequence of having acquired a more energy-efficient fleet in recent years.

4.6 Air quality

The developments in air quality are directly related to the type of vehicles we use. Therefore, the explanation of trends in the table above is combined with the explanation in trend in the table on our compliance with euro norms below. The calculation of the emissions are based on general factors per type of euro norm and is not specified further. As we do not have further information on underlying drivers to steer on, we do not set targets for these metrics.

PostNL Air pollution from fleet as indicated
2017 - 2021

In 2021, we continued to further increase the combined percentage of vehicles complying with Euro 6 standards. In 2021 we saw an increase in the percentage of Euro 6 vehicles, as a result of our investments in new LNG and large diesel trucks. As in our small trucks fleet, we saw an increase due to electrification of our fleet and new diesel trucks.

The absolute NO_x emissions from large trucks decreased despite a growth in kilometres of 18%, related to the volume growth at Parcels. The decrease in absolute NO_X emissions was 7%. This shows the sustainability improvements of our own fleet.

The total relative NO_x emissions in g per km decreased to 0.37, resulting from the efficiency of both small and large trucks. The total number is influenced by the increase in the number of kilometres driven by large trucks relative to the total kilometres driven.

The absolute PM₁₀ emissions increased in 2021 compared to 2020. As a result of the increased driven kilometres, the absolute emissions from large trucks increased. Within small trucks, emissions decreased as a result of more electric small trucks. In the coming years we expect the absolute PM₁₀ emissions to decrease as a consequence of the growing electric fleet.

Relative PM₁₀ emissions remained stable in 2021 compared to prior years. As in previous years, the relative emissions were 0.01 grammes per kilometre.

PostNL Compliance with Euro emission norms share per euro norm
2017 - 2021

The scale-up of our electric fleet will help us improve our absolute air polluting emissions, which is one of the elements covered in our Zero2030 programme. With the progress on our targets to become emission-free in our parcel and mail delivery by 2030 in the Benelux, and to deliver emission-free in 25 city centres by 2025, we will also significantly reduce our air polluting emissions, particularly in our small truck fleet and the fleet of our delivery partners. Scaling up our transition to increase the share of electric vehicles in our fleet requires a combination of sufficient availability of suitable vehicles in the market and adjusting both infrastructure and logistics in the coming years.

4.7 Environmental management system

PostNL Environmental management system as indicated
2017 - 2021

Our environmental management systems help us to continuously improve our environmental performance and management across the company. As in prior years, all PostNL employees worked in ISO14001-certified locations. To the best of our knowledge we had no environmental violations which shows the effectivity of the environmental management system.