Belgian postal services group Bpost now says that all its deliveries of mail and parcels throughout the Brussels Region don’t add any new emissions to the atmosphere. This was already the case in the City of Brussels in 2022, but now the guarantee has been expanded to all 19 Brussels municipalities.
‘Brussels is the first European capital where a parcel delivery company is operating emission-free. It’s an important step towards operating emission-free throughout Belgium, a goal the partly state-owned company hopes to achieve around 2030, intimates Nicolas Baise, Bpost Belgium’s chief operations officer.
In many places, you can already see them driving past: postal workers travelling ecologically in electric delivery vans or on bicycles. Mechelen was the first Belgian city where Bpost met its goal to deliver all parcels emissions-free. Cities like Bruges, Namur, Leuven and the City of Brussels quickly followed suit.
Now it is the turn of the entire Brussels Region. ‘We have around 500 electric delivery vans in Brussels. And electric bicycles are used on 60 routes, mainly in the city centre,’ Nicolas Baise of Bpost told VRT NEWS. ‘Brussels is the first capital city in Europe where a parcel delivery company delivers completely emissions-free.’
But it doesn't stop there. ‘Deliveries to a quarter of Belgians are currently emissions-free. Next year, that should rise to a third. And hopefully, by around 2030, the whole of Belgium will be covered.’
Green transports with green energy
These plans involve a great deal of work, the company says. ‘We need to provide enough charging stations for all bicycles and delivery vans,’ says Baise.
‘On top of that, these charging stations run on green electricity. At Bpost, we are also trying to generate some of that electricity ourselves. We have installed solar panels on our buildings, covering around 50,000 square metres across the country.’
At the same time, Bpost is focusing on installing parcel machines. ‘This also allows us to avoid a lot of kilometres and therefore the discharge of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. All these investments come in response to demands from our customers. That includes both members of the public, people at home, as well as web shops. Businesspeople are working on their green image, and an important part of that is the transport of the items purchased to their customers.’