Environmental & Sustainability Policy

Reviewed: 29 January 2026

At a glance

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact, prioritising carbon reduction over offsetting, and operating our digital mail and logistics services responsibly.
Our focus areas: energy & carbon (Scopes 1–3), waste & circularity, sustainable procurement, and low‑impact logistics & packaging.
We set measurable targets, report progress annually, and require suppliers to meet minimum environmental standards.

Purpose

This Policy sets out our environmental and sustainability commitments and the practical steps we take to minimise negative impact, comply with law, meet customer expectations, and support a low‑carbon, circular economy.

Scope

Operations: offices, mailrooms, warehousing/storage, transport we control, and cloud/IT operations.
Value chain: upstream suppliers (e.g., carriers, KYC/IT vendors, facilities) and downstream impacts of packaging and shipments.
Geography: the UK as primary operations; applicable requirements extend to overseas activities through our suppliers.

Legal & standards alignment

We align with applicable UK/EU environmental law and guidance, including:

Environment Act 2021 and related regulations; Environmental Protection Act 1990; Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
Producer Responsibility schemes where applicable (e.g., packaging).
WEEE and RoHS for electrical/electronic waste and substances.
UK SECR (Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting) where in scope.
GHG Protocol methodology for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 accounting.

Our commitments

Compliance first: meet or exceed all applicable environmental laws and permit conditions.
Carbon reduction: measure, reduce and annually report our Scope 1 & 2 emissions; develop material Scope 3 inventories (e.g., carriers, cloud). Prioritise efficiency and renewable energy.
Energy efficiency: operate energy‑efficient sites and IT; prefer cloud/data centres powered by high shares of renewables and publishable energy mix.
Waste‑to‑resource: reduce waste, maximise reuse and recycling, and ensure secure, compliant destruction (paper to BS EN 15713 with recycling where possible).
Sustainable logistics: optimise routeing and consolidation; select carriers with credible decarbonisation plans and low‑emission services where available.
Responsible procurement: embed environmental criteria into supplier selection and contracts (see Supplier & Partner Code of Conduct).
Packaging & materials: minimise material use, favour recycled/recyclable materials, avoid unnecessary plastics, and clearly label disposal routes.
Water & pollution prevention: prevent spills, manage chemicals safely, and minimise water consumption in facilities.
Biodiversity & local impact: manage sites to reduce nuisance (noise, light, waste) and seek opportunities to enhance biodiversity on or near our premises.
Transparency & improvement: set targets, track KPIs, and review at least annually. We will only use carbon offsets for genuinely unavoidable residual emissions after all reasonable reduction measures have been implemented; any offsets will be high‑quality and transparently disclosed.

Roles & responsibilities

Sustainability Lead (Policy Owner): maintains the environmental programme; coordinates measurement, reporting and supplier engagement.
Facilities/Mailroom Leads: deliver site‑level energy, waste and packaging practices; maintain records.
Procurement: integrates environmental criteria into sourcing and supplier evaluations.
Engineering/IT: optimise application efficiency, cloud usage and device lifecycle management.
All employees: follow this Policy, use resources responsibly, and raise improvement ideas.

Energy & carbon management

Measurement: annually calculate Scope 1 (fuel/refrigerants), Scope 2 (purchased electricity) and material Scope 3 categories (e.g., outbound carriage, inbound deliveries, cloud/IT, employee commute/business travel, purchased goods).
Targets: establish science-aligned reduction targets for Scopes 1–2 and key Scope 3 categories; publish in our annual environmental summary and review annually.
Actions: LED lighting, smart controls and timers; efficient HVAC; power‑management on devices; cloud right‑sizing and storage lifecycle rules; encourage renewable electricity supply where we control meters.
Travel: discourage high‑carbon travel; promote virtual meetings and public transport; implement a low‑emission business travel guideline.

Waste, recycling & circularity

Hierarchy: prevent → reduce → reuse → recycle → recover → dispose as last resort.
Paper: default to digital workflows; print only when necessary; use recycled content paper.
Packaging: standardise to recyclable or reusable materials; right‑size packaging; eliminate unnecessary void fill.
E‑waste: manage to WEEE standards via certified recyclers; wipe/sanitize data‑bearing devices and destroy media securely; maintain disposal certificates. We maintain a register of IT assets to support lifecycle management and ensure no equipment is disposed of without proper data sanitisation and environmental compliance.
General waste: segregate recycling streams (paper/card, plastics, metals, WEEE, batteries, toner) with clear signage; track diversion rates.
Mail destruction: shred to BS EN 15713 and recycle where feasible.

Sustainable logistics & carriers

Prefer carriers offering low‑emission or green services (e.g., EV fleets, consolidated deliveries) and publishable sustainability data.
Implement consolidation options for customers where practical (e.g., batch forwarding).
Minimise empty space/weight in parcels and use right‑size packaging to reduce carbon intensity.
Share customs documentation digitally where accepted to reduce paper.
Communicate clearly that international shipments are normally sent on DAP/DDU terms (Delivered at Place/Delivered Duty Unpaid).

Sustainable procurement

Include environmental criteria in RFPs and due‑diligence (energy use, lifecycle impacts, certifications, take‑back schemes).
Prefer certified suppliers (e.g., ISO 14001, ISO 50001, EcoVadis) or those able to demonstrate robust programmes. We prioritise suppliers who can demonstrate year-on-year improvements in environmental performance, not just static certifications.
Require cloud/IT providers to share energy/carbon disclosures and support efficient configurations.
Flow down this Policy through contracts and our Supplier & Partner Code of Conduct; require prompt notification of material environmental incidents.

Cloud & digital sustainability

Choose regions/providers with higher shares of renewable energy and strong transparency.
Optimise storage classes, retention and data transfer to reduce energy use; delete non‑value data per Data Retention & Deletion Policy.
Monitor application performance and right‑size compute; prefer serverless/managed services when efficient.
Avoid unnecessary large file transfers; compress where feasible; prefer efficient file formats.

Training, awareness & engagement

Provide onboarding and annual awareness on environmental responsibilities relevant to each role.
Promote employee initiatives (e.g., recycling drives, energy‑saving ideas) and recognise contributions.
Share progress updates and tips through internal channels.

Incident response & non‑compliance

Report environmental incidents (e.g., spill, breach, significant waste mis‑segregation) to facilities@ukpostbox.com and the Sustainability Lead within 24 hours of discovery.
Investigate, remediate and record corrective actions; notify regulators where required.
Suppliers must notify us without undue delay of any material environmental incident affecting services to UK Postbox. We assess climate-related risks (physical and transition) to our operations and supply chain as part of our business continuity planning.

UK Postbox Limited

13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FH, United Kingdom

Support: support@ukpostbox.com

Security: security@ukpostbox.com

Legal notices: legal@ukpostbox.com

Data protection: dpo@ukpostbox.com

Complaints: complaints@ukpostbox.com

Accessibility: accessibility@ukpostbox.com

Website: www.ukpostbox.com

Registered in England and Wales Company Number: 06723381

MLR registration no: XLML00000192390

ICO registration no: ZA038907