Stagecoach honoured for environmental excellence at Scotland Plc Awards

Transport group Stagecoach has won a top honour at the 2012 Scottish Business Insider and PricewaterhouseCoopers Scotland Plc Awards.

The Perth-based company was named as winner of the Sustainability Award – along with transport operator First Group – at the 14th annual ceremony in Glasgow last night (18 April 2012).

The Scotland Plc Awards celebrate business excellence among the largest and most successful companies in Scotland. A host of the country’s best known businesses were recognised across 10 award categories.

The Sustainability Award recognises a clear commitment to sustainable practices. Stagecoach was praised for the measures it has taken to reduce its carbon footprint, promote sustainability among staff, and to encourage greater use of public transport through joint-working with other transport partners.

Stagecoach Group Director of Communications Steven Stewart said: “We are delighted to have been recognised once again for the steps we are taking to become a more sustainable business. Our people are at the heart of helping us to become a greener business and this award is down to the hard work of our employees at all levels of the company.

“We have set ourselves stretching targets to reduce our impact on the environment and help people in our local communities make greener travel choices. This has been backed up by a multi-million-pound investment programme in our bus and rail companies, from new hybrid electric buses and regenerative braking systems on trains to more efficient energy management systems in our buildings. We will continue to work hard to improve further.”

Stagecoach Group announced last month that it has retained the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard after taking tough action on carbon reduction. The Group has shown a significant improvement in carbon efficiency over the two year certification period, since its initial certification was awarded, and during the same period the company also cut its emissions on an absolute basis in the UK overall.

In 2010, Stagecoach launched Revolution in the Way We Travel, a five-year plan to reduce further the carbon emissions from its transport operations in the UK and North America. Stagecoach Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in carbon emissions from buildings and a cut of 3% in carbon emissions from annual fleet transport by April 2014. Specific stretching targets have been set for each of its bus and rail businesses, supported by an £11million green investment programme.

Stagecoach initiatives underway in the UK include:

• investing in a hi-tech eco-driving system, which is expected to reduce fuel consumption at the Group’s 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.
• becoming the UK bus industry’s leading investor in new hybrid electric buses, which deliver a 30% reduction in carbon emissions compared to standard vehicles. The Group has ordered more than 200 hybrid electric buses for its operations across the UK.
• increasing the number of vehicles running on biofuel, as well as testing other sustainable recycled biofuels.
• installing a new ‘intelligent’ lighting system, which uses movement sensors to determine the amount of light required, at a number of bus depots and railway stations across the UK.
• improving energy management systems at offices and depots to reduce carbon emissions from buildings.
• investing £2.2 million at South West Trains in a major regenerative braking project to save energy on more than 200 trains.
• using an innovative fuel additive on East Midlands Trains, which has demonstrated a 4.4% improvement in fuel economy.
• introducing an innovative energy-saving engine standby system to reduce carbon emissions from idling trains.

Stagecoach reports annually on its carbon emissions through its corporate website, www.stagecoach.com, and also provides information on its global carbon footprint to the Carbon Disclosure Project, the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emissions database.

Stagecoach has won a number of awards recently for its environmental initiatives. In October last year, Stagecoach, along with Alexander Dennis Ltd., won the Green Award at the 2011 Route One Operator Excellence Awards for the introduction of hybrid-electric vehicles. The Group also won the Environment Award at the 2011 UK Bus Awards and, in July 2011, Stagecoach was Highly Commended as Company of the Year at the inaugural BusinessGreen Leaders Awards.

For further information about Stagecoach visit www.stagecoach.com