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Ever since the school strike for climate, sustainability has been very high on the agenda. At Swiss Post, corporate responsibility has been common practice for years now. But what exactly does sustainable living mean?

Lea Freiburghaus

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Francesco Galante with his two young children in their vegetable garden.
Francesco Galante, PostLogistics mail carrier, Sion, produces most of his food himself. ( Copyright: Isabelle Favre )

The battle to stabilize the world’s climate has reached a new level. Compelling evidence of this is the Fridays For Future movementTarget not accessible – school strikes that have garnered substantial attention in the media. As part of these strikes, young people all over the world have been protesting vocally against politicians who have so far failed to make significant cuts to harmful greenhouse gas emissions, meaning they are jeopardizing the very lives of these people.

Sociologist Claus-Heinrich is very blunt: “We’ve now come to a point where we’ve run out of options.” The Federal Council shares this view: at its meeting on 28 August 2019, it resolved to toughen Switzerland’s own targets in light of new scientific findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The bottom line is that from 2050 onwards Switzerland should no longer be emitting any greenhouse gases.

This demand for more action is also very apparent from Swiss Post employees: according to the latest employee survey, employees want Swiss Post to do more about sustainability. “For us, this is both a challenge and an incentive”, says Anne Wolf, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Swiss Post.

From a green Swiss Post to a sustainable Swiss Post

Sustainability has been a core company value for Swiss Post since 2010, and it forms part of the Group strategy. In its first sustainability strategy, Swiss Post focused on climate and energy. Then, in 2014, the strategy was expanded to include social areas of action for corporate responsibility. Five areas of action are defined in its current corporate responsibility strategy: climate and energy, responsible procurement, employees, circular economy and corporate citizenship.

“It used to be the case that companies would discuss whether they should take action in the first place,” says Anne Wolf, “whereas now, we’re actually talking about how and where we can make a contribution towards sustainable development. In order to come up with new methods and approaches, we need dialogue and interaction with society, academia, our employees and other stakeholders.”

“As a large corporation, we can do a great deal to help Switzerland become more sustainable, and to my mind, it’s essential that we do this for the good of the environment and society,” stresses Robert Cirillo, Swiss Post CEO. “So far, we’ve already achieved a lot, but there’s still a long way for us to go.”

written by

Lea Freiburghaus

Editor

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Sivan Räfle is sitting in front of a fire with children, they are roasting sausages.

“We should always consider what makes sense and is appropriate – for ourselves and the planet”

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Claus-Heinrich Daub, sociologist and sustainable business management expert at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.