Sustainable buildings and facilities
Our buildings and facilities are an important part of our ongoing focus on reducing our environmental footprint. We have significantly reduced the environmental impact of our buildings and facilities in recent years, and have achieved the satisfying position of only using zero-emission energy in our buildings. This was attained by installing solar panels on the roofs of our buildings, making a series of energy-efficiency improvements and sourcing only renewable energy. In 2023, our head office in The Hague officially received the BREEAM-NL In Use Excellent certificate. The transformation into a sustainable and healthy work environment resulted in the most sustainable national monument in the Netherlands.
Our sustainable sorting centres
Continuing our commitment to developing leading, sustainable logistics solutions, in 2023 we opened our 27th parcel sorting centre in the Netherlands. Located in Hoogeveen, the centre enables us to better manage e-commerce volumes in a building that has sustainability at the heart of its design and construction.
A first for PostNL, the centre is equipped with batteries that are charged using solar energy during the day and are then used to recharge the centre's fleet of electric vehicles overnight. The building has also been developed to comply with BREEAM-NL New Construction certification 'Excellent'', meaning that it employs the latest technologies and concepts to increase sustainability performance, including solar panels, LED lighting, and heat recovery systems. Since 2017, all of our parcel sorting centres have been built in accordance with the BREEAM-NL New Construction guidelines and need to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including measures to prevent impact on adjacent Natura 2000 areas. This involves nitrogen impact assessments and studies on local plant and animal life. This study provides recommendations on how local biodiversity can be supported. The company has identified the projects' effects on local biodiversity and is implementing recommendations to foster positive environmental outcomes or recovery. This included providing an ecological green structure (green roof and various planting areas around the property) to promote local biodiversity. There are now close to 190 nesting boxes for birds, bats and other nesting animals, such as hedgehogs, almost 30 insect hotels, and at various locations more than 1,500 m2 of ivy on and around the bicycle sheds.
By the end of 2023, we had over 34,500 solar panels on the centres' roofs. The solar panels on the roofs of the parcel sorting centres in the Netherlands generated around 49% of their electricity needs. We managed a significant 29% reduction in our gas usage compared to 2022 by implementing hybrid heating and cooling systems at our Mail in the Netherlands sorting centres, monitoring energy consumption, and raising awareness of saving energy among employees. This drop follows the 30% reduction in gas usage we achieved in 2022 versus 2021. We also introduced smart water metres at all major PostNL sites (around 60 locations) to help us monitor our water usage, and ultimately help us reduce our water consumption.
Expansion of charging infrastructure
We continue to grow the charging infrastructure across our sorting centres and locations, and by year end had almost 900 charging stations, including over 250 for regular vehicles and more than 600 for parcel vans.
Reducing our waste streams
We introduced a redesign of the waste streams within our Mail in the Netherlands sorting centres in 2023, and by the end of the year the first three sites were operational. Currently, 64% of our waste is being recycled and our goal is to raise that to 80%.
Reusing furniture from 4,000 retail locations
As part of our focus on reduce, reuse, recycle, we have begun working with a company that develops circular interiors for organisations with sustainable ambitions. We have asked them to come up with ideas to give new life to furniture we are replacing at around 4,000 franchise retail locations in the Netherlands, with the aim of having three circular initiatives up and running by 2025. We will provide a progress update in our next report.