Reducing our Carbon Footprint
Our transport services support local economies, help improve quality of life by reducing air emissions and congestion, and provide a low carbon way to travel. Millions of people use our services to travel to school, work and leisure activities each day. This makes an important contribution to reducing carbon emissions from travel.
We are committed to helping governments and local communities to reduce carbon emissions from travel.
Our main role is to ensure we continue to provide a low carbon form of travel by operating our vehicles efficiently and promoting their use. This commitment is set out in our Climate Change Strategy which we revised this year.
We have set revised targets for each business unit. These targets reflect the different operating environments across the business and their varying carbon reduction opportunities.
There is no ready-made solution for reduction of carbon emissions in public transport. Technology continues to evolve as does our scientific understanding of the options and challenges involved in reducing emissions. We will review our targets and programmes annually to allow revision as new developments and opportunities arise.
For further information click the following links:
- Reducing emissions from our buses
- Reducing emissions from our trains
- Reducing emissions from our buildings
- Reducing the impact of business travel and commuting
Reducing emissions from our buses
In the past three years we have reduced our average carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle kilometre by 2.3% and per passenger kilometre by 6.5%.
This is a major achievement as we have delivered this despite the requirement on us to introduce new vehicles that meet European emissions standards: these vehicles are heavier and less fuel-efficient than their predecessors.
The European Union's new EURO engine standards require a progressive reduction of local air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulates in vehicle engine emissions. The exhaust modifications required to meet the new emission standards have contributed to poorer vehicle fuel consumption.
In addition we have achieved a further 15,286 tonnes of savings of carbon dioxide this year through the use of 5-7% biodiesel.
Our dedicated engineering team continues to explore a range of options for improving engine fuel efficiency. These have included:
- further adaptation of DriveGreen driver advisory systems installed on our buses to achieve a further three to four % improvement;
- using data from DriveGreen to reduce idling time;
- analysing the impacts of tyre pressure and type on fuel efficiency;
- additive trials to reduce the fuel efficiency deterioration caused by biodiesel;
- electric fan trials;
- vehicle tuning and engine/gearbox trials;
- working with our vehicle suppliers to ensure new vehicles are best in class for fuel efficiency;
- developing a whole-life cost model which informs vehicle purchasing decisions.
Promoting more fuel-efficient driving
In early 2010 we introduced DriveGreen technology to all our UK buses. These are LED displays on the dashboard that help the driver drive more fuel-efficiently. A £2m reward pool was established to motivate drivers to reach the highest standards. This year we commissioned an independent review of the system's efficiency. This has shown that the theoretical improvement in fuel efficiency of around 5% is being achieved but is not reflected in our emission reduction figures due to the introduction of newer buses which are less fuel efficient and the loss of more fuel efficient buses from the fleet. In practice we are achieving improvements in the region of 2.3% which represents about 16,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. We are now exploring how we might adapt the system to achieve further fuel efficiency improvements.
Working with vehicle suppliers to improve fuel efficiency
Emissions from our vehicles contribute to over 95% of our carbon footprint. We are therefore working actively with our vehicle suppliers to ensure they provide us with vehicles that are best in class in terms of fuel efficiency, which is a central measure on the supplier scorecard. In both the UK and North America we are challenging our suppliers to ensure that the introduction of Euro VI technology and new Environment Protection Agency (EPA) standards do not lead to a further reduction in vehicle fuel efficiency.
Carbon reduction programmes in North America
In North America we have conducted extensive trials to determine how we can improve fuel efficiency in the existing Greyhound and First Student fleets. The resulting engineering improvements have been included in all new and refurbished Greyhound buses. In First Student engineering adjustments have now been made to around 30,000 vehicles in response to the trials. We expect these combined measures to improve fuel efficiency by 5%.
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Reducing emissions from our trains
Since the introduction of our carbon reduction programme in 2006 we have reduced our emissions per vehicle kilometre by 7% and emissions per passenger kilometre by 16%, in our diesel-operated fleet.
We continue to lead the industry in finding ways of improving our existing vehicle fleet's efficiency. This has become particularly pertinent in the current economic climate where the UK Government is looking to extend vehicle life expectancy.
Key developments in 2010/11:
- We have led the UK industry in installing driver advisory systems. First Hull Trains have had a fully operational system since November 2010. Early indications show a fuel usage reduction of around 10%. We have now proved the business case for installing these systems in First Great Western.
- Working with Angel we have initiated a major overhaul programme of our diesel fleet to deliver fuel economy and reliability improvements. The diesel fleet represents about 60% of our rolling stock (much of which is very old) and we aim to make improvements in fuel efficiency of around 11%.
- New electric trains currently being delivered to First ScotRail incorporate regenerative braking. When final deliveries are made, regenerative braking will feature on 55% of our electric fleet.
- We continue to develop our energy metering report database which supports 25 electric trains from First Capital Connect and First ScotRail. This data will tell us more accurately where the energy is being used to develop eco drive and stabling protocols.
Improving fuel efficiency in First Great Western
First Great Western's HST fleet is the largest single consumer of fuel within UK Rail. A number of initiatives have been implemented over the past year to reduce consumption. These include operating empty coaching stock with one engine, altering train schedules to use the most efficient trains, installing automatic shut-down to reduce engine idling and raising staff awareness about preventing heat loss by shutting windows on completion of station duties. We expect to achieve further significant reductions in fuel usage in this fleet with the installation of state-of-the-art Driver Advisory Systems which, following extensive trials, will be fitted to the fleet from June 2011.
Eco driving in First ScotRail
Eco driving involves optimising the acceleration and deceleration of a train to minimise fuel and energy consumption while maintaining punctuality. Following tests on our driver simulators, all our drivers have been trained in this technique which includes 'coasting' where it can be achieved without impacting on the timetable. A number of coasting boards (which identify the points where drivers can shut off power) have been installed and more will follow in the coming year. Indications are that eco driving has been instrumental in achieving a fuel efficiency improvement of more than 2.5%.
First ScotRail is now trialling Driver Advice Systems (DAS), which inform drivers of optimum driving techniques, to determine the business case for this investment.
Driving further fuel efficiency improvements at First TransPennine Express
The installation of eco drive technology installed on the First TransPennine Express fleet was delivering an average of 10% improvements on fuel efficiency. To raise this figure still higher we have developed three EcoChallenges for drivers, involving competitions with cash prizes and assigning good drivers to coach their colleagues in best practice driving techniques. These competitions have further improved fuel efficiency by between 2 and 3%.
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Reducing emissions from our buildings
We have an ongoing programme to reduce our buildings emissions. During 2009/10 we introduced a new data management and reporting system in line with the Government's CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme which came into force in April 2010. The majority of our electricity meters have been replaced by automatic smart metering, which will improve our understanding of energy usage trends.
During the past 12 months we have reduced energy usage in buildings by 0.5% across our UK Bus and Rail divisions. However we have achieved a 7% reduction over the past two years.
In North America energy usage has increased by 5% across our sites with a reduction of around 11% in our top 100 properties.
We have engaged a number of companies to perform energy audits on key properties. Their recommendations will inform our energy reduction programmes going forward.
A detailed analysis of our energy data highlights very different consumption patterns within each operating company's sites. Using the audits we will develop tailored solutions for different properties to help meet our future energy reduction targets.
Return to topReducing the impact of business travel and commuting
Although the impacts from business travel and commuting constitute only a small part of our overall carbon footprint, we aim to keep emissions as low as possible. Emissions from business travel have risen this year but we have achieved overall reductions since 2007 as a result of our active programme to raise awareness of alternatives such as telephone and video conferencing. In the financial year 2009/10, FirstGroup increased the use of audio conferencing by 30%, with over two million minutes of meeting time logged. We also now require employees to seek authorisation for air travel.
We offer all our employees free bus or rail passes, encouraging them to use public transport when travelling to work. For those unable to use public transport (for example when travelling to the depot for the first shift of the day) we encourage car sharing (in partnership with liftshare) and bike schemes. A central database allows any of our UK employees to access information to help them find travel partners. Like a growing number of businesses we have implemented green travel plans in many operating companies.
In 2010 we began monitoring business travel for North America. The baseline figure (2,514 tonnes carbon dioxide) allows us to measure future trends.