Green Living: Royal Mail delivery

One guy who keeps the whole thing moving is Eddie, who looks after the front gate and the post room.

This is a crucial role especially when we have a big event coming up and we're getting lots of deliveries going in and out every day.

Naturally, we try to avoid posting things out when we can. If we can send an email instead we'll try to do that but there are times when sticking something in the post is the only way of doing it.

Royal Mail has been ahead of the game for a few years now in addressing the carbon concerns of its operations.

It has a Sustainable Mail programme which aims to reduce the amount of waste mail sent by businesses.

This has a two pronged attack of targeting address data cleverly to ensure that only the right people get the mail, and using materials which recipients can recycle more easily.

As one of only 57 companies to have received the Carbon Trust Standard, the Royal Mail has shown that it is possible to operate a paper-based business which shows genuine reductions in its carbon footprint.

"Adaptation" can be a controversial word in environmental circles, as it relates to the idea that rather than trying to halt climate change we should actually be adapting to it, as it's too late to stop it.

Royal Mail, however, has shown that adaptation can be a good thing - moving its business into a lower carbon future that should benefit us all.

- Do you or your company have an environmentally friendly product or service you'd like featured in this column? Let us know by contacting Seventeen, a sustainable alternative for your event management needs, at andrew@seventeenevents.co.uk.