Online mail transactions increased 13 percent in 2009, adding to the gains the U.S. Postal Service is seeing in an ambitious effort to cut the postal carbon footprint.

The Postal Service says in its annual sustainability performance report released Tuesday it has gained some $400 million in energy cost savings since 2007 and cut its contracted transportation fuel use by $314 million.

The savings are part of a plan, the USPS says, to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent and petroleum fuel use by 20 percent by 2015 and cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020.

By last year, the agency said, it reduced energy use at its facilities and from vehicles 9 percent while ramping up alternative fuel use 26 percent over the previous year.

The savings may have been helped by a sharp drop in mail volume, which has led the USPS to close facilities and cut thousands of jobs.

The greater use of online services, part of what the USPS calls its “Click-N-Ship” effort with consumers to set pickups and buy postage, saves time, fuel and carbon emissions on trips to post offices.

Source: JOC