UNITED PARCEL SERVICE UPS

United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS; CIK 0001090727) posted $88.7 billion in 2025 revenue and moved an average of 20.8 million packages daily, according to its 10-K filed February 17, 2026 [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026008432/ups-20251231.htm]. The corporate registration tied to this briefing — headquartered in Denton, TX — shows a narrow EPA ECHO footprint: 2 facilities, 2 quarters with non-compliance in the 24-month window, and derived penalty exposure of approximately $3.04 million [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. That figure understates the full picture. The broader UPS enterprise, read across affiliated ECHO registrations, surfaces peer-record counterparts showing 11 facilities and $10.64 million in derived 24-month penalties [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Two RCRA hazardous-waste settlements define the enforcement record of the past five years. EPA Region 6 announced a June 2021 consent agreement covering 183 facilities across Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, paired with a $3.8 million civil penalty [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement]. Sixteen months later, on October 19, 2022, EPA announced a nationwide settlement spanning 1,160 UPS facilities across 45 states and Puerto Rico [source: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. Those two actions set the compliance baseline that UPS has been implementing ever since. Market-facing disclosures in UPS's 2024 GRI Report emphasize carbon-neutrality targets and alternative-fuel goals but do not prominently summarize either RCRA settlement [source: https://about.ups.com/content/dam/upsstories/images/our-impact/reporting/2024-UPS-GRI-Report.pdf]. On the capital-markets side, May 4, 2026 brought a separate shock: UPS shares fell roughly 9–10% after Amazon launched a competing Supply Chain Services platform [source: https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/26/05/52261817/ups-stock-slides-as-amazon-launches-supply-chain-platform].

The 24-month compliance record for the Denton, TX-registered UPS entity is narrow on its face. EPA ECHO identifies 2 facilities — IDs 110005013476 and 110005015599 — with 2 quarters flagged for non-compliance, zero active permits recorded, and derived penalty exposure of $3,040,000, calculated as a 24/60 apportionment of the five-year total [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The EJ index average is reported as 0.0, which reflects absent or non-aggregated demographic screening values for these two facility IDs rather than any substantive environmental-justice finding [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

The enterprise-wide picture is materially larger. Reading the ECHO registry across sister legal-entity slugs reveals the full scale: UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC (UPS) lists 11 facilities, 8 non-compliance quarters, and $10.64 million in derived penalties; UNITED PARCEL SERVICES shows 10 facilities, 6 non-compliance quarters, and $6.42 million; UNITED PARCEL SVC shows 16 facilities, 6 non-compliance quarters, and $5.76 million [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Aggregated across all four records, the UPS system carries exposure that dwarfs the Denton-entity slice alone.

The past 24 months have been shaped by compliance implementation tied to two prior RCRA actions rather than fresh headline enforcement. EPA Region 6's June 16, 2021 consent agreement gave UPS and TForce Freight 24 months to bring 183 Region 6 locations into compliance, alongside the $3.8 million civil penalty [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement]. That was followed by EPA's October 19, 2022 nationwide consent agreement and final order covering 1,160 facilities across 45 states and Puerto Rico, requiring UPS to implement environmental policies addressing land-disposal determinations and on-site hazardous waste management [source: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. The Consent Agreement and Final Order document remains posted on EPA's enforcement page, last updated May 29, 2025 [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/consent-agreement-and-final-order-ups]. The 10-Q filed November 5, 2025 contains no environmental-disclosure excerpt for the reporting period [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828025049661/ups-20250930.htm]. Meanwhile, a 2025 permit-extension dispute at the Fort Worth FedEx hub — not a UPS facility — has sharpened community and regulatory attention on air quality and zoning around North Texas parcel-logistics sites broadly, a dynamic that sits adjacent to UPS's Denton headquarters [source: https://fortworthreport.org/2025/05/15/fort-worth-fedex-hub-on-track-to-extend-permit-amid-environmental-concerns-outdated-zoning].

Action 1 — EPA Region 6 RCRA Consent Agreement and Final Order, announced June 16, 2021. Program: RCRA (hazardous waste). Respondents: United Parcel Service, Inc. and TForce Freight, Inc. Scope: 183 facilities across Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Outcome: civil penalty of $3.8 million; a 24-month remediation period to bring all 183 locations into compliance; enhanced compliance program [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement]. The underlying document — UPS Consent Agreement and Final Order, a 777 KB PDF — remains posted on EPA's enforcement page [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/consent-agreement-and-final-order-ups].

Action 2 — EPA Nationwide RCRA Settlement, announced October 19, 2022. Program: RCRA. Respondent: United Parcel Service, Inc. Scope: 1,160 facilities across 45 states and the territory of Puerto Rico. Alleged violations: failure to make land-disposal determinations and to conduct proper on-site management of hazardous waste. Outcome: consent agreement and final order requiring implementation of environmental policies to prevent future noncompliance [source: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. Secondary coverage placed the aggregate nationwide penalty figure at $5.3 million [source: https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/articles/1].

Action 3 — Ongoing ECHO-derived non-compliance for the Denton, TX-registered entity. Program: not individually broken out in the exporter summary. Scope: 2 facilities (ECHO IDs 110005013476 and 110005015599). Outcome: 2 quarters with non-compliance in the 24-month window; derived penalty exposure of $3,040,000, calculated using qtrs_with_nc (capped at 8) and the formula penalty_24mo = total_5yr × (24/60) [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. No active permits appear in the ECHO record for this specific registration, and the top_pollutants field is empty [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Facility 1 — ECHO ID 110005013476, tied to the Denton, TX-registered UPS entity. The exporter bundle lists this site as one of two contributing to the 24-month non-compliance count. Program, media, and specific pollutant detail are not populated in the summary, and the EJ index is 0.0 [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Facility 2 — ECHO ID 110005015599, tied to the same registration. This site also contributes to the 2-quarter non-compliance count and the $3.04 million derived 24-month penalty apportionment, with no active permits recorded [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

Facility 3 — UPS Region 6 Texas facilities covered under the 2021 consent agreement. The Region 6 settlement specifically required compliance work at the Texas subset of the 183 Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas locations, with the $3.8 million civil penalty shared across the respondents [source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/united-parcel-service-inc-ups-settlement].

Facility 4 — UPS Puerto Rico locations inside the 2022 nationwide settlement. EPA's October 19, 2022 release expressly names the territory of Puerto Rico within the 1,160-facility scope. That inclusion is relevant for environmental-justice screening given the territory's demographic and infrastructure profile [source: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide].

Facility 5 — Fort Worth air-logistics corridor (context). The specific 2025 permit-extension dispute named FedEx, not UPS. Even so, Fort Worth Report coverage documents active community concern about diesel truck traffic, air quality, and outdated zoning around North Texas parcel-hub operations — a corridor that sits directly adjacent to UPS's Denton, TX headquarters and is structurally relevant to forward-looking environmental-justice scrutiny of similar facilities in the region [source: https://fortworthreport.org/2025/06/24/fedex-gets-permit-extended-despite-calls-to-consider-environmental-health-impacts].

The ECHO exporter summary for this specific UPS registration returns an empty top_pollutants array. The two facilities in scope are not reported with pollutant-specific loadings in the exporter bundle [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. The enforcement record therefore centers on hazardous-waste handling categories rather than air or water discharge pollutants.

Pollutant Category 1 — RCRA-regulated hazardous wastes generated through parcel and freight operations. EPA's October 2022 action specifically cited failure to make land-disposal determinations and improper on-site management of hazardous waste. Under RCRA Subtitle C, that covers ignitable, corrosive, reactive, and toxic characteristic wastes routinely encountered in package-damage and spill scenarios across a distribution network [source: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/ups-settles-epa-correct-alleged-hazardous-waste-violations-nationwide]. Exposure pathways for improperly managed characteristic wastes include soil contact, groundwater infiltration, and worker inhalation.

Pollutant Category 2 — Diesel particulate and combustion byproducts from parcel-hub operations. UPS's 2024 GRI Report sets a target of 40% alternative fuel in ground operations by 2025 and 30% sustainable aviation fuel by 2035, implicitly acknowledging the diesel and jet-fuel combustion profile of its network [source: https://about.ups.com/content/dam/upsstories/images/our-impact/reporting/2024-UPS-GRI-Report.pdf]. Community concerns around comparable parcel and air hubs in Fort Worth have centered on diesel truck traffic and surrounding air quality [source: https://fortworthreport.org/2025/05/15/fort-worth-fedex-hub-on-track-to-extend-permit-amid-environmental-concerns-outdated-zoning].

Pollutant Category 3 — CO2 from global small-package operations. UPS targets a 50% reduction in CO2 per global small package from a 2020 baseline by 2035, and carbon neutrality by 2050, per the 2021 ESG highlights brochure still posted on its corporate site [source: https://about.ups.com/content/dam/upsstories/assets/social-impact/2021-esg-highlights-brochure/en_en_2021SustainabilityBrochure_V15.pdf.pdf].

Within NAICS 492110, the three highest-penalty peer registrations are all UPS-affiliated legal-entity variants. That pattern reflects how ECHO splits parcel-network compliance records across multiple corporate slugs rather than consolidating them under a single registrant. The Denton, TX-registered entity in this briefing — $3.04 million in derived 24-month penalties, 2 facilities — sits below the affiliated UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC (UPS) slug at $10.64 million across 11 facilities and 8 non-compliance quarters, and below the UNITED PARCEL SERVICES slug at $6.42 million across 10 facilities [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip]. Read in aggregate, the UPS system's 24-month derived penalty exposure across all four records totals roughly $25.8 million — and that consolidated figure is the appropriate basis for any like-for-like peer comparison [source: https://echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/echo_exporter.zip].

UPS's 10-K filed February 17, 2026 frames forward-looking environmental statements within a broader cautionary block, directing readers to the Investor Relations site and to subsequent SEC filings for updates, and declines to undertake obligations to update forward-looking statements except as required by law [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026008432/ups-20251231.htm]. The excerpted Item 1A language does not itemize RCRA or air-permit exposure as standalone risk items. Item 7 MD&A points to Critical Accounting Estimates and Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk as the governing sections for reserve-related adjustments [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026008432/ups-20251231.htm]. One network-configuration change adds a layer of forward uncertainty: UPS's December 2025 agreement with USPS to handle final-mile delivery for Ground Saver and Mail Innovations volumes beginning in 2026 expands the physical footprint of UPS operations, and the environmental-permitting implications of that expansion are not quantified in the excerpted filing [source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026008432/ups-20251231.htm].