Many of us have become so dependent on our cars they are often in every day use. Living in a city I am fortunate in that I can cycle for most of my journeys.
The one step that made a big difference to reducing our car use was keeping monthly and subsequently weekly records of our mileage (along with our utilities). Although a simple exercise, the impact of gathering this data (combined with our 10:10 pledge) has been immense. For any journeys that we might be inclined to take the car we now consider other alternatives first and only use the car as a last resort. Our next step is to join a car club and sell the car.
A great source of advice on how to cut emissions from driving is the chapter on car travel in Chris Goodall’s latest book; How to Live a Low Carbon Life.
In the health sector, the Yorkshire Ambulance Service have ambitious plans for cutting their fuel consumption, fuel bills and carbon emissions. Read the blog by Alexis Keech including the Energy Saving Trust’s top ten eco driving tips here.
The following resources are available to help you cut emissions from driving:
Smarter Driver Training
The Energy Saving Trust (EST) run this training programme which can reduce fuel consumption by around 15%. The training lasts about one hour and costs £15 (plus vat) per person subject to a minimum of nine people. You can read more about the programme here and listen to testimonials from Oxford City Council staff and managers here.
Free Green Fleet Advice
The Energy Saving Trust also run programmes to offer free green fleet advice. There are different levels of service depending on the size of the fleet: for fleets under 50 vehicles you can get advice from the free telephone advice line; for fleets over 50 vehicles you can benefit from a more comprehensive (but still free) Green Fleet Review.
You can see a case study of the Small Fleet Advice from the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust here.
You can see a case study of the Green Fleet Review from Northern Lincolnshire & Goole Hospitals NHS Trust here.
To link directly to the EST website click here.
Telematics
Capturing data can be made much easier through the use of telematics equipment. This is typically a ‘black box’ that is fitted to the car and connected to the onboard computer (Engine Control Unit) which gathers data about how the vehicle is being driven. It enables comparisons of fuel consumption to be made between drivers and therefore rewards can be given for good driving techniques plus it can indicate where additional training might be helpful. The West Yorkshire Police service is currently undertaking a trial using equipment from the Airmax Group.
Car Clubs
Car Clubs can be a very positive means of getting access to a vehicle without having the cost of buying one. They can work for both private and business use. Congratulations to the very successful car club operator streetcar who have just signed up to 10:10, read more here. A social enterprise car club operator is Commonwheels.
Carplus is a national charity promoting responsible car use and in particular: promotes and supports the development of car clubs and car sharing schemes.
Car Sharing
There are 38 million empty car seats on the UK’s roads every morning – imagine the reduction in traffic if large numbers of people were to share lifts. You would need fewer parking spaces, benefit from less traffic congestion and staff would save money. The lovely people at Liftshare, who run a popular website that matches offers and requests for lifts, have created a page dedicated to 10:10 - check it out here.
Travel CO2 Calculator
There are lots of websites where you can calculate the emissions for a journey. This is one that I have found very useful: www.travelfootprint.org.
Finally, a few questions for you:
Car Policy – do you have a car policy that promotes low emission vehicles?
Remuneration rates – could you change your mileage remuneration rates to encourage staff to drive more fuel efficient cars and/or cycle?
Claim forms – do you include CO2 emissions on your mileage claim forms?
I hope these ideas have been helpful - do let me know if you have anything to add.
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