Stagecoach Group is continuing a major drive to make its own business more sustainable and attract more people to travel by bus, coach, train and tram. The company’s wide-ranging strategy includes investment in renewable fuels and cleaner engines, state-of-the-art energy efficient facilities, water and waste recycling initiatives and offering businesses green travel incentives for their employees. Here are just some of Stagecoach’s innovative environmental initiatives:
- Renewable energy
- Energy efficiency
- Sustainable biofuel
- Fuel additive
- Fuel-efficient driving
- Carbon neutral travel
- Reverse vending recycling
- Real nappy eco-partnership
Stagecoach has signed a contract to source most of its electricity requirement for its UK bus operations from renewables. Electricity generated from mostly small-scale hydro, as well as on-shore wind and biomass, will provide more than 70% of the company’s required supply, with the remainder coming from cleaner, low-carbon sources. Smart meters are also being installed to help cut energy use as part of the £3.5million contract with Opus Energy. The two-year contract, which will dramatically decrease CO2 emissions, covers electricity supply to around 240 UK sites.
Emissions from around 90 of Stagecoach’s workplaces across the UK have been cut by more than a third after the introduction of a hi-tech energy management system. Gas consumption has been slashed by an average of 36%, while CO2 emissions have been cut by more than 6,200 tonnes a year. Developed by Vickers Electronics Ltd, the technology uses self-learning predictive programming, coupled with high accuracy temperature sensing. It takes over the control of the existing heating and delivers improved control, staff comfort and dramatic reductions in energy consumption, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
Stagecoach is testing the UK’s first Bio-buses, which run on 100% biodiesel. The bio-fuel is manufactured by Argent Energy Ltd from used cooking oil and other food industry by-products, which are from sustainable sources that do not involve the destruction of natural habitats or compete with the human food chain. The environmental project also allows customers to exchange used cooking oil for discounted bus travel Since the initiative was launched in October 2007, it has cut C02 emissions from the buses by 80%, saving 550 tonnes of carbon, and more than 21 tonnes of used cooking oil has been recycled
Stagecoach uses a next-generation fuel additive, Envirox™, to reduce carbon emissions and improve fuel efficiency. The additive, manufactured by Oxonica, is based on a well-known oxidation catalyst widely used in catalytic converters. The material has been re-engineered using nanotechnology to allow it to be delivered as a fuel-borne catalyst, leading to a cleaner burn within the combustion chamber. The additive has delivered more than a 5% cut in fuel consumption and an associated decrease in vehicle emissions. Stagecoach also currently uses a blend of 5% biodiesel across its 7,000-vehicle UK bus fleet.
Stagecoach invests millions of pounds each year in the training of its driving team, including through its Safe, Skilled and Fuel Efficient Driving programme. All of the company’s 13,500 drivers require to complete the course as part of a Certificate of Professional Competence. Stagecoach is also testing a hi-tech in-cab driver system to improve safety, reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions. The initiative is in partnership with GreenRoad Technologies, a leading driver safety company, on the bus network in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The system monitors up to 120 driving manoeuvres, such as speed, braking, acceleration lane handling and turning. Data is sent in a continuous stream to GreenRoad’s web server and analysed, providing information about a driver’s performance. Instant feedback is given to the driver using red, amber and green lights on the dashboard and optional SMS or email messaging.
Stagecoach has launched Scotland’s first carbon neutral bus network. The ground-breaking environmental initiative, in partnership Scottish charity Global Trees, will see all of Stagecoach's Fife to Edinburgh bus network become carbon neutral through to 2013. Around 140,000 trees will be planted in the south of Scotland this year, saving 21,500 tonnes in CO2 emissions.
Stagecoach has launched Scotland’s first reverse vending recycling initiative in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council, offering discounted bus travel in return for used drinks cans and plastic bottles. A hi-tech reverse vending recycling machine has been introduced at Ellon Park and Ride facility, which is used by 123,500 people every year, allowing commuters to recycle their waste and get cheaper sustainable travel. It uses advanced barcode technology to identify, sort, collect and recycle steel and aluminium drinks cans, as well as plastic drinks bottles. Consumers will receive a Stagecoach green point for every item recycled at the facility, which they can then redeem for discounted bus travel and other offers. A total of 50 green points entitles the holder to a 20p bus travel voucher, while 100 points equals a 50p discount voucher. It is hoped the innovative green partnership will reduce landfill and encourage more people to take greener public transport.
Stagecoach has launched an innovative eco-partnership with Perth and Kinross Real Nappy Network (PKRNN) to offer a free a week’s free bus travel to parents signing up to use real nappies for their babies. Some 8 million disposable nappies are thrown away in the UK every day with 90% going to landfill – a total of 3 billion nappies every year. One baby will use a tonne of nappies each year and will be in nappies for an average of two-and-a-half years. Real nappies have around half the carbon footprint of disposables, which are believed to take hundreds of years to decompose. As well as the huge environmental benefit, using home laundered nappies could save parents around £500 on the cost of keeping a baby in disposables.