Postage Prepaid Postcard: Ocean Park Hong Kong Series No.1-7 – "Amazing Asian Animals" (airmail)
Special Stamp Issue – "Biodiversity"
We use environmentally-friendly paper to print all our philatelic products, including picture cards, first day covers and souvenir covers. In addition, all stamps are printed on paper manufactured from base paper made by an ISO 14001 certified company, a standard which guarantees that an environmental management system is in operation at the paper mill. The stamp paper is made with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved pulp, sourced from forests that operate with strict FSC environmental guidelines, and is suitable for recycling. It is manufactured under the European Community Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, designed to help organisations manage and improve their performance in environmental protection.
Among our list of stamps and postcards issued during the year, we included a set of seven postage prepaid postcards which feature the seven species of precious animals housed in the Amazing Asian Animals area of Ocean Park and a set of four stamps entitled "Biodiversity", depicting four species endemic to Hong Kong, These philatelic products help to raise public awareness over the plight of rare species.
Postage Prepaid Postcard: Ocean Park Hong Kong Series No.1-7 – "Amazing Asian Animals" (airmail)
Special Stamp Issue – "Biodiversity"
Our Stamp OnNet online ordering platform, launched in 2005, enables customers to take advantage of our Local Standing Order Service (LSOS) online. By March 2011, more than 12,000 local standing order and 700 overseas mail order customers had registered for stamp purchases via Stamp OnNet, doing away with the need for physical application forms. Currently over 19,000 LSOS customers also choose to receive philatelic newsletters and stamp order collection letters by email, helping us further reduce our consumption of paper.
We continued to support Hong Kong's Clean Air Charter with regular indoor air quality (IAQ) checks conducted by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department at all post offices. We have also incorporated environmental improvements into new building work.
Hongkong Post vehicles use unleaded, low-sulphur fuel, and measures to improve fuel efficiency, such as switching off engines while waiting, are now standard practice. We have also continued adding environmentally-friendly (EF) vehicles to our fleet, including Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) vehicles and medium-size trucks that meet Euro V standards. During the year, we introduced our first hybrid vehicle to replace a petrol saloon car which had reached the end of its lifecycle. In addition, to support the Government initiative on the wider adoption of electric vehicles, we placed a procurement order for an electric vehicle in December 2010. In some rural areas, bicycles are still used for mail deliveries.
Newly Introduced Hybrid vehicle
Hongkong Post uses the services of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) to ensure that its postal vehicles are well-maintained and have minimal environmental impact. The EMSD's environmental management system conforms to internationally recognised ISO 14001 standards.
Hongkong Post is committed to promoting green management at many levels. Our Environmental Enhancement Steering Committee is tasked with overseeing the efficient use of resources and implementing energy-saving measures. Building on achievements in recent years, Hongkong Post has continued to make encouraging progress in promoting green management and energy savings. Some of our key initiatives during 2010/11 involved:
Hongkong Post supports the HKSAR Government's recommendation that indoor air temperatures should be maintained at 25.5o C, and we monitor levels of energy consumption at all of our post office premises carefully. Our overall annual electricity consumption in 2010/11 decreased by 4.1% as compared with the same period in last year after discounting activity changes.
We continue to monitor the use of photocopying paper closely, encouraging staff to avoid printing documents unnecessarily wherever possible. More than 30% of our photocopying paper is made from recycled paper.
Hongkong Post's Workplace Hygiene Charter helps us to maintain a high quality working environment for all employees. Environmental protection issues also regularly appear on agendas for management and staff briefings. All employees are encouraged to contribute ideas for environmental initiatives.
Vocational training programmes comprise an environmental protection module, which introduces staff to our Environmental Management System and provides useful tips for saving energy. In 2010/11, 400 staff members took this module. Seminars, workshops and visits relating to environmental issues are held regularly, with all staff having the opportunity to participate. We also regularly circulate internal environmental guidelines and encourage staff to put environmentally friendly measures into practice both in the workplace and at home.
Furthermore, we take every opportunity to promote environmental awareness amongst Hongkong Post staff, and support environmental campaigns initiated by other organisations. In 2010/11, we attended seminars on "Electric Vehicle and Effective Fleet Management" and "Briefing Sessions on Government Energy Consumption Report and Monitoring" held by Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. We continued to support Hong Kong International Airport Carbon Management Programme to monitor carbon emissions. In this year, we participated in various environmental campaigns initiated by other organisations, including "Tree Planting Challenge 2010" held by Friends of the Earth (HK) in April 2010; "Carfree Day" organised by Greenpeace in September 2010; "Hong Kong No Air-Con Night" organised by Green Sense in September 2010 and "Earth Hour 2011" organised by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in March 2011.
Hongkong Post colleagues planted more than 100 trees in the Tree-Planting Challenge 2010