bpost is Belgium’s national postal service. Their headquarters are located in Brussels, they run post offices and sorting centres across the country and operate internationally. bpost wants to be a leader in ESG, as it is part of their DNA. A new corporate sustainability roadmap was launched in January 2022 to achieve these ambitions. bpost aims to reach net zero emissions by 2040, reaching a 55% reduction by 2030. They also want to reduce scope 3 emissions by 14% by 2030. Specifically for circularity, the focus is on packaging and logistics, exploring opportunities such as reusable packaging and reverselogistics.
This Interreg NSR ProCirc pilot is part of bpost’s Sustainable Procurement Programme and targets sustainable vending machines with healthy products. In 2021, the contracts for water fountains and vending machines for warm drinks, cold drinks and snacks were up for renewal. These represent over 500 machines, spread over all bpost sites in Belgium. Therefore, the potential impact is quite large. Furthermore, it was an opportunity for bpost to test a full circular procurement approach.