DRIVING DOWN EMISSIONS
Commercial makes over 500 deliveries nationwide every day. As you would expect, this means that the fleet is large and, proportionally, can have a huge impact on the environment. In fact, our first carbon footprint exercise showed that 84% of our emissions came from the fleet, a staggering proportion.
As you would expect, this has meant that reducing the emissions of the fleet has been a key task for us. Using feasibility studies, expert advice and a lot of hard work, we are now operating a fleet that has been commended by GreenFleet, Fleet News and the Energy Saving Trust as a beacon in the fleet world.
AWARD WINNING DYNAMIC ROUTING SYSTEM
The first system we have used to reduce fleet emissions is our award winning Dynamic Routing System (DRS). Developed in-house, this system optimises fleet routing through a combination of technologies and human expertise. As a customer, you can be involved in this optimisation as we have found that this can also reduce your own emissions. So far, the DRS has enabled us to reduce our fleet driving by over 140,000 miles.
SUSTAINABLE BIOFUELS
Secondly, we have introduced a sustainable biodiesel system that has been commended by the EU BioNETT programme as an exemplar of sustainable biofuels. We use only biodiesel sourced from sustainable sources with an audited footprint of less that 1% that of mineral diesel and have introduced chain of custody based on the FSC model to ensure that the fuel is not only high quality but with provable environmental benefits.
THE FIRST REALTIME BLENDING PUMP
To fill the vehicles, we installed the UK first realtime blending pump in 2008 which allows us to run any diesel vehicle based at our Cheltenham base on a optimum blend of biodiesel. Not only does this enable us to reduce carbon emissions by up to 85%, but, as it integrates with our fuel and vehicle management systems, this pump helps us to closely monitor our fleet emissions and enables us to become better and better at driving down emissions.
THE RESULTS
Overall we have reduced our fleet emissions by a staggering 66% between 2006 and 2008 as audited by ECCM, while delivering more value to our customers.
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
909.90 |
435.00 |
304.93 |
“It’s no surprise that Commercial Group have achieved fantastic progress in reducing emissions; clear vision from the top and a determination to tackle all aspects of transport from sustainable biofuels to encouraging home working – all contribute to a truly sustainable way of doing business.” Nigel Underdown, Head of Transport Advice, Energy Saving Trust