Stagecoach shortlisted for top environmental award

ADL Trident double deck Stagecoach bus

Stagecoach Group is in the running for a top environmental honour after being shortlisted as a finalist at the 2011 Scottish Green Awards.

The Perth-based transport group has been named as one of four finalists in the Best Green Large Company category at the awards ceremony to be held in Glasgow on 29 September.

It is the third consecutive year that Stagecoach has been shortlisted at the Scottish Green Awards. In 2009 Stagecoach was named Best Travel Provider at the event and also won the Best PR Campaign Award.

Stagecoach Group Director of Communications Steven Stewart said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for an award for the third consecutive year for the work we are doing to become a more sustainable business and help our customers lead greener lives.

“We’ve set ourselves some stretching targets to cut the carbon footprint of our business in the UK and North America. It’s the hard work and initiative being shown by our bus and rail employees across the Group that is central to the progress we are making.”

Stagecoach has a comprehensive sustainability strategy and is investing £11million in a range of measures to meet its environmental targets. The Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in buildings CO2 emissions and a cut of 3% in annual fleet transport CO2e emissions by 2014.

Last year, Stagecoach Group was awarded the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change by measuring and reducing its carbon emissions. Stagecoach is the first Scottish-based transport group – and one of only two listed UK public transport operators – to have achieved the stretching carbon reduction benchmark. It covers all of the Group’s bus and rail operations in the UK.

The Group has put in place a number of measures over the past 12 months – at both its bus and rail operations – to ensure it is becoming a more sustainable business. These include:

UK Bus

• Stagecoach is the first UK bus company to mix its own biofuel on site using a new bio-blender installed at its Kilmarnock depot which allows around 100 buses in the west of Scotland to operate on up to 40% biofuel.
• Stagecoach has also launched a fleet of 11 buses in Lincoln that operate on biomethane, derived from household rubbish and animal waste and could reduce carbon emissions by up to 40% as well as cutting fuel consumption.
• The Group is also leading the way on investing in greener vehicles and has placed orders for 142 hybrid electric buses in the past year which deliver a 30% reduction in carbon emissions compared to standard vehicles.
• Stagecoach is making a multi-million-pound investment in a hi-tech eco-driving system, by Green Road, which is expected to reduce fuel consumption at its bus division by 4%. The scheme also offers employees the chance to earn “green points” that are converted into financial benefits from a potential £900,000 annual bonus pot.
• During its annual Green Week, the company launched a £500,000 project to fit new, greener engines in some of its mid-life buses to prolong the life of the vehicles.
• Stagecoach is also trialling a new ‘intelligent’ lighting system – which uses movement sensors to determine the amount of light required – at six bus depots across the UK.

UK Rail

• South West Trains is investing £2.2 million in a major regenerative braking project to save energy on more than 200 of its trains and is conservatively expected to save enough energy to power more than 3,500 UK homes for an entire year.
• Six South West Trains stations have become the first on the UK rail network to install ‘intelligent’ lighting which is expected to deliver a 60% energy saving.
• At East Midlands Trains, the introduction of an innovative fuel additive – the first of its kind in the UK – has demonstrated a 4.4% improvement in fuel economy.
• East Midlands Trains has also recently launched an innovative energy-saving engine standby mode which could reduce enough carbon to take the equivalent of 705 cars a year off the road*.

Stagecoach Group won the Travel and Transport Award at the 2010 Green Business Awards. In addition, in July this year, Stagecoach was Highly Commended as Company of the Year at the inaugural BusinessGreen Leaders Awards.

For further information about Stagecoach Group, visit www.stagecoach.com

*Based on the average car covering 8690 miles per year emitting 2836kg of CO2.