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• GETTING TO THE POINTS
• Pre-Budget Report Comment
• BUMPER CARS
• I LIKE DRIVING IN MY CAR… (ON MY OWN)
• HARD DAYS LIGHT
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• SEEING ‘RED’ OVER HIGH FUEL COSTS
• DRIVING “CONDITIONS”
• MANY HAPPY RETURNS?
• KICKING THE CO2 HABIT
• ‘GREEN’ FINGERS
• FROM AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TO GROUND TRAFFIC CONTROL
• CULTURE SHOCK
• DON’T DRIVE DROWSY
• ‘FOLLOW THAT STAR!’
• PULLING POWER
• The Darling Budget of March - 08
• Courtesy Cars - March 08

• Green Survey - Feb 08

• New congestion charge angers industry - Feb 08
• Midlands Excellence Award win - Jan 2008

Green Survey - Feb 08

Where the gas is not always greener

Most companies environmental fleet policies are based upon securing a positive image for the business rather than having a company-wide sustainable carbon reduction strategy, according to the latest research from leading fleet management company Masterlease.

In the survey of more than 159 businesses, 60 per cent of them revealed that company image was the main reason for taking a green approach to their fleet, with only 47 per cent stating cost savings as a motivating factor.

There was also clear confusion about how to turn these green policies into reality.   While 70 per cent of respondents said that the environment was taken into consideration when making fleet decisions, only 25 per cent said that their companies were actually any good at reducing their carbon footprint. Almost one third admitted the approach to the environment was simply to ‘tick the green box.’

Robert Kingdom, head of marketing & business development at Masterlease, said the findings were revealing, but not entirely surprising:

“There is still a lot of confusion among businesses about the environment which has been revealed in the survey. It’s ok to focus on the image benefits – there is increasing evidence that a company’s green credentials are influencing consumers’ buying decisions and employee engagement.  But we argue that the environment and cost savings go hand in hand and that the financial business case should not be ignored.

“It is positive to see that so many businesses are considering the environment now when making fleet decisions but there is little point if this isn’t resulting in lower carbon emissions and driving down costs.  The research shows that far too many policies fall short by focusing too heavily on the vehicles and not considering the impact that driver behaviour can have.” 

Whilst over 50 per cent of the respondents felt their companies had made positive steps in terms of choosing environmentally friendly vehicles and measuring CO2 emissions, few had made the next step in terms of looking at the impact of driver behaviour.  38 per cent of the fleet operators questioned did not monitor driver mileage effectively and 43 per cent said their companies hadn’t implemented changes in working practices to help reduce employee mileage, such as home working or video conferencing. 

The survey revealed that 47 per cent of fleet operators felt their companies were poor at providing information to drivers on environmental issues and this was echoed by the fact that 73 per cent of respondents chose to source their environmental information from the fleet media, rather than through their own companies or official Government channels.

“The main reason Masterlease conducted this survey was to understand what support was needed by business.  This research shows that many would benefit from advice on what practical steps they can take to turn their green fleet policies into reality and significantly reduce both their carbon footprint and cost.  The fleet should be considered as part of a company-wide sustainable carbon reduction strategy and clear targets should be set in order to improve their true environmental reputations,” adds Kingdom.