In 2009, the U.S. Postal Service collected, sorted, and delivered more than 177 billion pieces of mail. Finding more sustainable ways to process this mail and lower the carbon footprint of such a massive effort continues to be a central goal of the U.S. Postal Service. We spoke with Sam Pulcrano, Vice President of Sustainability at the U.S. Postal Service, about his leadership in forging sustainable operations, reducing the Postal Service’s carbon footprint, being good environmental stewards, and how it is leveraging innovation in all its sustainability efforts.

Today’s mail is among the most effective channels of communication in a crowded marketplace. As technology, commerce, and society evolve, so, too, must government and corporate business models. This is as true for the U.S.