Filling up on frying fat?
Why PostNL is opting for renewable fuels
PostNL aims to achieve last-mile emission-free delivery of all letters and parcels by 2030. A key step towards that goal is to make our fleet more sustainable, which is why we’re investing heavily in electric vehicles such as electric bikes, scooters and vans, facilitating emission-free deliveries. Unfortunately, we’ve not quite reached the same stage for all the heavy trucks we also need. That said, we’re looking forward to electric trucks hitting the road when the market allows.
Until then, we’re replacing petrol and diesel with cleaner fuels for as many of our vans and trucks as possible. Biological liquefied natural gas and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO100) can help us cut our carbon emissions by up to 90% and go fossil-free. With these renewable fuels, we emit up to 90% less CO2 and drive fossil-free. In 2021, we already tanked 35% renewable fuel (8% in 2020).
On track to 100% emission-free delivery
At the end of the day, we want to be fully emission-free. But as long as we can’t, renewable fuels are a great interim solution. We use renewable fuels derived from organic matter, such as plant-based oils and waste fats, including frying fats used by McDonald’s.
Of course, we keep a beady eye on the production processes for these new fuels and ensure that our suppliers comply with all requirements imposed by the Dutch Emissions Authority. We also insist on our HVO100 being free of palm oil and on no rainforests being cut down for our fuel consumption. This is how we’re able to cut our carbon emissions in the short term while transitioning to a fully emission-free delivery network (aside from CO2, no more particulate matter or nitrogen oxide either). In fact, we sometimes refer to these renewable fuels as transition fuels.