Cutting emissions with clean driving

According to the report, Saving fuel, saving costs, corporate fleet managers have more power over the composition of our atmosphere than most politicians, or even most oil executives.

“Fleet managers have a surprising amount of power over all of our futures, and with the rapid progress being made in clean tech, they can use that power for good, and on a grand scale,” said Barbara Stoll, senior climate campaigner, Greenpeace.

The report reveals that transport is responsible for almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, and road transport accounts for 72-81% of that. Europe’s corporate fleets produce around 380 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, significantly more than the entire emissions of Spain. The report adds that air pollution causes more than 29,000 premature deaths in the UK every year — 10 times the number killed in road accidents – and the majority of this pollution is from road transport.

“Hopefully the enormous potential cost savings will help – instead of asking for sacrifices, we’re just asking them to sacrifice a bit less to oil companies,” she added.

The report also reveals fleet operators are responsible for 50% of new car purchases in Europe, and 54% in the UK, and can facilitate the shift to cleaner cars for private drivers, as well as improving the efficiency of freight transport.

Forty-five percent of the total GHG emissions from road transport in the EU come from company fleets, but the report says the impact of fleet managers’ purchasing decisions is far greater than this, as the majority of company cars are sold into the second hand car market, and so fleet managers control a large proportion of the supply of used vehicles in the private market.

The report adds emissions can be cut by up to 20% through eco-driving and retro-fitting – adding one aerodynamic feature to an HGV can cut fuel use by 4% – as well as better tyres and switching from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, hybrids, trains, barges and teleworking.