United States Postal Serviceʹs environmental strategy of leadership and compliance

The United States Postal Service was faced with increased regulatory and organizational pressures caused by increasing environmental requirements and a massive reorganization in 1992. Moreover, states and local governments were granted authority to impose fines and penalties on government facilities. The Postal Service responded to these challenges by implementing a new organization with the environmental function placed in an operations portion of the organization and by placing the environmental responsibility on line management. This paper describes the implementation of a strategy of leadership and compliance which was developed by a cross-function team and endorsed by senior management. The strategy focuses on ten target areas including pollution prevention/recycling, hazardous chemicals, paint spray operations and regulatory outreach.