Stagecoach on board to promote environmental awareness

Transport group Stagecoach is using its fourth annual Group-wide Green Week to celebrate its environmental achievements so far.

During the week-long programme of events, the Perth-based company will encourage employees and customers to further drive forward the green agenda with a series of activities taking place across all of its businesses from 21-25 May.

Stagecoach is currently in the third year of a five-year plan to reduce its own carbon footprint as a business. However, the Group has been taking action for a number of years to cut carbon emissions at its buildings and vehicles and the results show that the company is making good progress.

Stagecoach Group reduced carbon emissions relative to the turnover of its UK businesses by 5.6% in the two years to 30 April 2011 as a result of a package of measures designed to make the Group more sustainable. This reduction followed a 5.7% carbon efficiency improvement in the three years to 30 April 2009*.

And the Group is continuing to further reduce the impact of its operations on the environment as well as encouraging greater use of public transport to reduce pollution and congestion in towns and cities. Stagecoach is committed to offering motorists a greener, smarter and better value travel option through its network of affordable and high quality bus, coach and rail services.

Stagecoach’s annual Green Week aims to raise awareness of environmental issues among staff and passengers through a series of events.

The following activities will take place throughout Green Week:

• Competitions within the company’s UK Bus, UK Rail and Canadian operations for customers to win free travel on their local services
• A series of green giveaway events and roadshows at bus and rail companies across the UK where employees will hand out thousands of ‘Eco kits’ to passengers
• Employee energy awareness events at many of the Group’s businesses
• Walking and cycling lunchtime activities for staff
• Stagecoach green teams getting involved in local environmental projects
• Green Staff Day encouraging employees to leave their cars at home for the day
• Green schools competitions and family fun days
• Staff raffle competitions with proceeds going to local environmental projects

Stagecoach Group Chief Executive Sir Brian Souter said: “Green Week is now an established and important part of our efforts to protect the environment and become a more sustainable business. But we know the global challenge we all face on climate change is not just about what we do during this week, but how we make a difference every day of the year. That’s why we will continue to work hard to encourage our staff and help our customers to adopt greener lifestyles.”

Stagecoach Group announced earlier this year 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. Last month, the company won the Sustainability Award at the 2012 Scotland plc Awards and, 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 Group visit www.stagecoach.com

* The reductions quoted are based on the Carbon Trust approved relative measure of tonnes CO2eq/£ turnover. This measure reflects the fact that the scale and geographic footprint of the business can change as its commercial and contracted services develop.