"If the Swiss Post doesn't, then who will?"

The company is at the forefront of carbon storage with biochar / Philipp Mäder, responsible for Swiss Post's neutralization strategy, visited First Climate partner Inkoh’s production facilities in Maienfeld.

Swiss Post is among the pioneers neutralizing unavoidable emissions from its business operations with biochar. To support regional biochar projects, the company purchases carbon credits from First Climate. Philipp Mäder, Managing Director of the responsible subsidiary, Post CDR AG, visited First Climate partner Inkoh AG’s biochar plant in Maienfeld to have a firsthand look at the biochar site, production, application, and to discuss the technology’s potential.

Inkoh’s Managing Director Gion Willi presented the innovative production plant in Maienfeld, Graubünden, where his company has been operating an industrial pyrolysis plant for biochar production since 2020. At Inkoh, locally sourced, untreated forest residues are dried directly and energy-efficiently on site with waste heat from the pyrolysis process. Pyrolysis permanently binds the carbon from the biomass into the biochar. Applying the biochar in specific ways, for example by incorporating it into the soil or as an aggregate for building materials, makes it possible to store the bound carbon stably and sustainably for centuries. This actively removes it from the atmosphere.

Philipp Mäder was convinced by the high level of standardization of Inkoh's biochar production, which enables the company to guarantee consistently high product quality in accordance with the guidelines of the European Biochar Certificate (EBC) standard. He explained that the Swiss Post chose to use biochar as part of its ambitious neutralization strategy not only because of this high-quality standard, but also because of local production in Switzerland, as well as the scalable availability of the technology.

"We have [....] clear quality criteria for how we select projects. First Climate made us an offer for our strategy that met those requirements." -Philipp Mäder

Swiss Post has set a group-wide net zero climate target for the year 2040. By this date, Swiss Post plans to reduce its operational greenhouse gas emissions within its entire value chain by at least 90% compared to the base year 2021. As early as 2030, the company will also neutralize unavoidable residual emissions in the Scope 1 and 2 areas, including with the help of carbon sink credits from the production and use of Swiss biochar.

"We want to be the role model, to lead the way and to be genuinely impact-oriented in our actions. If the Swiss Post doesn't, then who will?" said Philipp Mäder in an interview with First Climate during his project visit to Inkoh.

You can watch the interview here (in German) or read the transcript below:

Interview with Philipp Mäder

What are Swiss Post's climate targets and what actions are the Swiss Post taking to achieve them?

Philipp Mäder: “We have a very ambitious, best-practice climate target that we even strengthened last year since 2020. What do we mean by strengthened? We will be carbon neutral in our own scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.

What are we doing toward this goal? We are reducing our own emissions as best we can. We very recently became SBTI validated to the 1.5 degree target. We are one of the few companies in Switzerland with a net zero target as early as 2040.

Although we are highly committed to our reduction path, it’s obvious that we can’t reach zero in 2030 or 2040. With the Net Zero target, we aim to reduce definitely 90% --at least 90% of our CO2 emissions. But the rest we will neutralize. And that’s why we’ve said that if we call ourselves “climate neutral in our own operations” as early as 2030, then we will neutrialize everything that we have not reduced as early as 2030. This means that we need a neutralization strategy relatively early, relatively quickly. The options on the market are limited; there are limited methods available in a scalable way. We want to be the role model, to lead the way and to be genuinely impact-oriented in our actions. If the Swiss Post doesn’t, then who will?”

What are the milestones in the Swiss Post’s climate strategy?

Philipp Mäder: “Swiss Post has three major fields of business. The first is passenger transport, which means we operate the postbuses in Switzerland. The second is we are a logistics company, for mail, parcel and related goods. And we are a bank, so Postfinanz is also part of the Swiss Post Group.

We have reduction targets for all three and these are by far the biggest milestones. We are electrifying the entire delivery process; in goods logistics, we are trying as quickly as possible to switch to alternative mobility, just like what we are doing with the Postbus.

As early as 2024, we want to have 100 postal vehicles electrified and on the road. We have the entire delivery process where we will deliver parcels and letters completely climate-neutral by 2030. Today, we already have Bern and Zurich as two large cities where we deliver only fossil-free.

And in the bank, we focus primarily on the investment portfolio of Postfinanz. We will have the entire investment portfolio 100% fossil-free by 2040 in the value chain’s Scope 3 emissions.”

What role does biochar play?

Philipp Mäder: “That’s exactly the point. After reducing and substituting, our third priority is to neutralize the residual CO2. As I said, there are relatively few possibilities that are currently available today in a scalable way. We noticed that nature-based methods are much more available and there are much better opportunities to be involved and support its development. One of the two nature-based methods is biochar and biochar production. And then it still depends on the supply that is available. We found a good offer here, looked at that, looked at what the partnership could look like, and came to the conclusion that it's worth getting involved.”

You can find more information on the Swiss Post's investment in biochar here.