At the 2021 Universal Postal Union (#UPU) #congress in Abidjan, the UPU’s 192 Member Countries agreed on the harmonized #measurement and reporting of #carbon and #greenhouse gas (#GHG) emissions across the entire postal sector. A harmonized #system for measuring and reporting is essential as a basis for the #knowledgetransfer between #designatedoperators and wider #postalstakeholders which is needed to reduce carbon and GHG #emissions and to implement associated balancing, #financing, and #climateadaptation measures.

In 2012 the UPU initiated #OSCAR, its Online Solution for Carbon Analysis and Reporting for the #global #postal sector. Using an interactive #onlineplatform, OSCAR allows postal operators in the 192 UPU Member Countries to analyze and report their carbon and GHG emissions, as well as to demonstrate successful emissions #reduction efforts. 

OSCAR simplifies and harmonizes the #datacollection process, can be adapted to each postal operators’ reporting #requirements, and automatically produces individual reports for each user. The #system can provide participating postal operators with an #analysis of their specific carbon and GHG emissions, including a detailed report on these emissions by #volume, source, and product.
It also allows year-on-year comparisons as a means of documenting the #efficacy of reduction measures, and can illustrate #outcomes based on 20 Carbon #KeyPerformanceIndicators, such as emissions per postal item, emissions per #employee, etc.

OSCAR applies standardized measurement #methods and complies with ISO 14001 and the #GlobalReportingInitiative. Following the opening of the UPU to the wider postal stakeholders and its subsequent re-orientation towards the #postalsector as a whole, OSCAR is just one of the #products and #services which would be welcomed by all sector stakeholders.

OSCAR should also be linked with #European efforts to standardize measurement of the end-to-end #footprint for #delivery of all #commercialitems (#CEN/TC331 Committee Draft: „Postal Services — Parcel Delivery Environmental Footprint — Methodology for calculation and declaration of GHG emissions and #Airpollutants of #parcellogistics delivery services“).  

This would create a #globalplatform for the customized #measurement of carbon and GHG emissions for the postal sector, one which accommodates industry-specific #challenges and #demands. The postal #datamodel on which OSCAR is based can also be used in the next #digitalization steps, such as incorporating freight transporters across all transport modalities, for example.