Through the SMMS programme, IPC is working to systematically improve sustainability management proficiency across the postal sector. By strengthening their approach, postal organisations can reduce social and environmental impacts while creating commercial value through enhanced risk management and strategic identification of new opportunities. Through knowledge-sharing and collaborative positive action, the sector can improve social, economic and environmental outcomes across the full value chain, including suppliers, customers and the communities in which postal organisations operate.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is beyond the reach of any single company. These Goals call for coordinated efforts and a collective approach from industry sectors.

Sustainability as a growth strategy: insights from seven years of SMMS data 

 

The Sustainability Measurement and Management System (SMMS) was built on the simple proposition that if posts strengthen their sustainability management (through setting strategy and policy, embedding it in the organisation, measuring results and disclosing them), then performance outcomes will follow. Seven years of group data now let us test that proposition rather than simply assert it. The results make a business case that goes well beyond sustainability reporting.

Within the SMMS, management proficiency is assessed annually through a detailed Sustainability Management Proficiency (SMP) questionnaire across four core management pillars: Strategy and policy, Embedding, Measurement and evaluation, and Disclosure and reporting. The SMP covers seven sustainability Focus Areas most material to the postal sector, from Climate Change and Resource Efficiency to Health and Safety and Sustainable Procurement. Performance outcomes are tracked separately through quantitative data collection, including greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle fleet composition, electricity use, and waste figures. Together, these two strands of the SMMS programme let us compare how effectively organisations manage sustainability with the outcomes they achieve. Here are the key takeaways:

  • The pace of decarbonisation has roughly doubled since the SMMS was launched.
    Between 2012 and 2018, under the carbon-only Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System (EMMS) programme, the group reduced absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by around 1.7% per year. Since the programme evolved into the SMMS in 2019, that reduction rate has been 3.4% per year - twice as fast. Fleet electrification accelerated over the same period, and the 2030 target of 25% electric vehicles was reached in 2024, six years early. The operators and the external pressures they face are largely unchanged; what did change was the breadth and discipline of the management system behind their decisions.
  • Stronger management proficiency is associated with improved sustainability performance.
    Since 2019, the group’s overall SMP score has risen alongside reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Statistical analysis also identifies credible lead-outcome patterns: stronger Resource Efficiency management proficiency precedes growth in the share of alternative-fuel vehicles, while Circular Economy proficiency moves with recycling performance even after accounting for the general upward trend. The analysis is clearly consistent with stronger sustainability management contributing to measurable performance gains. 
  • Posts are managing sustainability as an integrated discipline, and the data confirms it is working.
    Posts progress the four pillars together rather than one at a time, and the feedback loop is visible in the scores: where Measurement and Disclosure improve in one year, Strategy and Embedding tend to improve the next. Information from measurement, and stakeholder reaction to disclosure, is finding its way back into strategic decision-making.
  • The management capabilities growing fastest are the ones that protect the business.
    SMP scores for identifying, mitigating and putting a financial value on sustainability risks and opportunities rose from an average of 27% to 67% between 2019 and 2025, among the largest gains in the programme. Board-level accountability, the use of sustainability data in executive decisions and incentives, and public target-setting have all climbed. These capabilities insulate operators against fuel and carbon costs and regulatory change, and they produce the assured performance data that large customers now ask for in tenders.

These findings demonstrate the importance of building management proficiency and the value being delivered by the SMMS programme. The evidence indicates that the programme has supported and strengthened posts’ ongoing decarbonisation efforts, alongside progress in fleet electrification, enhanced risk management capabilities and identification of commercial opportunities. Together these capabilities help posts maintain momentum towards group and individual targets, protect core business, and remain competitive in a challenging market. 

 

 

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Annexes Download