Conscious of our impact on Italy’s land and economy, we have worked and continue to work to protect the environment and combat climate change.

The energy transition, the search for innovative solutions to reduce the environmental impacts of our activities as much as possible and the responsible use of resources are an integral part of our daily work.

Our Environmental Sustainability Policy has outlined two major focus areas:
 

• the decarbonisation of logistics activities, in particular through the renewal of our vehicle fleet, which is the largest in Italy
• the energy efficiency of our buildings

We also believe in the principles of the circular economy and strive every day to minimise the amount of disposed waste and to encourage recycling. Our Environmental Management System and that of our main subsidiaries is certified according to ISO 14001. Our goals and results are regularly reviewed.


Environmental commitment in our products and services​
Our environmental awareness applies both to the way we run our business and to the products and services we offer.
With our Electricity and Gas offer, we provide our customers with electricity produced entirely from renewable sources.
Our newly issued payment cards are all made of environmentally friendly material, such as the new Postepay Green, which is 82% composed of organically sourced polylactic acid.

Every day we deliver letters and parcels to every corner of the country. This is why it is important to reduce emissions from our logistics activities.

Since 2019, we have started to replace our ‘road’ fleet (cars, tricycles, quadricycles, and mopeds), the largest in Italy by retiring the most polluting vehicles in order to integrate an increasing number of Euro VI classified, hybrid and electric vehicles, used for ‘last mile’ delivery (from the warehouse or distribution centre to the end customer).

Our commitment to sustainability also extends to our aircraft fleet: in 2024, we replaced two of our five aircraft in order to have more modern and efficient aircraft, and in March 2025 we acquired a new aircraft.
 

Sustainable mobility also depends on biofuels
In July 2024 we signed an important agreement with Enilive, the Eni Group company dedicated to mobility services and products. This collaboration allows us to use biofuels (mainly produced from waste, such as waste cooking oil, food fats or residues from the agro-food industry, which Eni processes in its own biorefineries) for our road vehicles and aircraft, with the aim of more rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels.

The goal of the Green Delivery project is to develop a sustainable delivery model that will both reduce our environmental impacts and meet our customers’ needs. As an alternative to home delivery, our customers can choose to conveniently pick up a parcel not only at post offices but also in the PuntoPoste network.

A beneficial solution both for the environment and for citizens:
 

• We limit CO2 emissions because we can deliver several shipments at one pick-up point rather than delivering a parcel to each individual recipient. We therefore reduce transport and avoid the need for our postal carrier to make a second visit in the event of the recipient’s absence.
• Citizens also benefit from greater flexibility in line with changing lifestyles: instead of waiting for parcels at home, people have access to more than 18,200 local pick-up points (tobacconists, bars, stationers, newsagents, KiPoint shops, Carrefour, API petrol stations, lockers), in addition to our post offices.

Poste Italiane’s real estate assets are almost unrivalled in Italy, which is why the attention we pay to our buildings’ energy efficiency has significant impacts for the whole country.

Our initiatives cover three areas in particular:

Decarbonising buildings
We are removing gas boilers to install heat pumps at sites all over the country, prioritising older systems.
Heat pumps make it possible to reduce the building’s CO2 emissions to zero by using certified 100% green electricity.
In 2024, the replacement of gas boilers reduced emissions by 9,650 tCO2e, and we expect to achieve a reduction of 12,000 tCO2e in 2025.
In addition, we acquire electricity from 100% certified renewable sources with Guarantees of Origin.


Installing solar panels
We are installing photovoltaic systems on our own sites throughout the country, self-generating renewable energy.
Today, we have about 580 solar power plants, and in 2024 we self-produced 10,096 MWh of electricity.
By 2026, we are aiming to install more than 1,300 plants, with an expected production of more than 40 GWh per year.


Smart building
Thanks to the installation of sensors, smart building management allows us to save energy and reduce emissions.
In 2024, the ‘Smart Building’ project involved 150 buildings, bringing the total of our smart buildings to 2,150.
In 2024, we achieved energy savings of 8.7 GWh thanks to the Smart Building project, exceeding our target of 8 GWh.

We are aware that natural resources are precious. This is why we are working to progressively reduce the waste produced during all our activities, including by limiting packaging and the use of ‘virgin’ resources and favouring recycled resources.
Almost all of our waste is recovered. In 2024, we generated a total of 47,227 tonnes of waste, 99.7% of which was recovered.

We reduce paper consumption
By dematerialising and digitising documents: this will lead us, for example, to phase out the use of paper in transactions at post office counters.  We work to maximise the share of paper waste that can be recycled and reused. Moreover, for our bulk mail facilities (services for companies and administrations that have to send large quantities of documents), we favour Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper: this certification promotes environmentally friendly, socially useful and economically sustainable forest management.

For all major supplies that use plastics (postal seals, courier bags, packaging films, etc.), we strive to reduce the use of raw material, trying to use recycled plastic as much as possible.


The ‘Valori ritrovati’ project
Lost or abandoned goods are gifts, not waste. Some parcels cannot be delivered to the recipient, nor returned to the sender, because the data are missing or because they are ‘abandoned’.
Traditionally, once the 12-month storage period had passed, these parcels were disposed of and sent to the scrap heap: a considerable waste of goods and resources. 
With the ‘Valori Ritrovati’ (Recovered Values) project, we give these parcels a new life, donating them to charitable organisations for redistribution to people and families in need.  More valuable goods, or those unsuitable for social needs, are resold at reduced prices for charitable purposes. 
Initially launched with the Caritas Roma Onlus Foundation, the project will be extended to other charitable organisations. 
‘Valori ritrovati’ also involves our employees through corporate volunteering.
From 2019 to 2024, during the five years of the project, we reused about 374,000 objects. 
In 2024 alone, 111,000 parcels were allocated to the “Recovered Values” initiative.


The ‘Scarpa vecchia fa buon gioco’ project (Old soles, safe steps)
We promote innovative projects, such as this one, which were partly created through our people’s ingenuity. We recover our ‘old shoes’ to make them into carpets suitable for children’s play areas.
Every year, we generally collect and dispose of around 25,000 damaged or worn out shoes from our postal carriers. This inspired us to launch a new circular economy project: by shredding these shoes, we can turn them into soft flooring for toddlers, which is currently used in our company nurseries in Rome and Bologna.
We have calculated that 5,500 kg of old shoes can be used to make 50 square metres of anti-trauma flooring for children.