Stagecoach Group plc : Stagecoach Group cuts carbon impact by more than 20% in four years

Stagecoach Group cuts carbon impact by more than 20% in four years

30 Jan 2013

• Carbon intensity of international operations down by fifth since 2007-08
• £11m green investment programme in UK and North America
• Employee initiatives help drive dramatic improvement in energy efficiency

Stagecoach Group announced today (30 January 2013) that it has cut the carbon impact of its businesses in the UK and North America by more than 20% in the past four years.

The transport group's absolute annual carbon footprint is now nearly 56,400 tonnes of CO2e lower than in 2007-08. The annual carbon saving is equivalent to the CO2e produced by powering nearly 11,000 homes for a year.

Analysis of Stagecoach's carbon trends compared with the growth of its bus and rail services shows an even clearer impact from the Group's reduction programmes over the period.

Measured by carbon intensity (kg CO2 per £ of turnover), Stagecoach's carbon impact now is 22% less than four years ago.

Carbon intensity in the UK Bus division is down 18% and it is 23% lower in UK Rail. In North America, carbon intensity is down 37% in the United States and been cut by 26% in Canada.

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. The strategy is supported by an £11million green investment programme. Employee initiatives and eco teams set up by staff have also helped drive dramatic improvements in energy and carbon efficiency.

Stagecoach Group is targeting an overall absolute reduction of 8% in carbon emissions from buildings and a cut of 3% in carbon emissions per vehicle mile from annual fleet transport by April 2014. Specific stretching targets have been set for each of its bus and rail businesses.

Director of Communications Steven Stewart said: "We are committed to growing our business sustainably. The significant carbon reductions we have achieved are the result of the leadership right from the top of the Group. It also reflects the way employees right across the business have embraced our drive for greener, smarter working and better value travel.

"However, we still have work to do to minimise our impact on the environment and we are already working on our next five-year plan."

Last year, Stagecoach Group retained the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard for its action on carbon reduction. Stagecoach initiatives underway in the UK alone 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.
• introducing an innovative energy-saving engine standby system to reduce carbon emissions from idling trains.

Every year, Stagecoach reports on its carbon emissions through its corporate website, www.stagecoach.com. It 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. At the 2012 Scottish Business Insider and PricewaterhouseCoopers Scotland Plc Awards, Stagecoach was named joint winner of the Sustainability Award.

In October 2011, 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.

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact: Stagecoach Group Communications on 01738 442111 or email [e-mail]

NOTES TO EDITORS

STAGECOACH GROUP

• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The Group employs around 35,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of UK's biggest bus and coach operators with around 7,800 buses and coaches. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on Stagecoach's buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group's business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates between around 60 towns and cities across the UK.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.
• Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,900 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. megabus.com links more than 120 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and transit services, contracted bus services, charters, sightseeing tours and a small number of school bus services.

STAGECOACH GROUP CARBON EMISSIONS AND INTENSITY

Stagecoach Group's carbon footprint in 2011-12 was 1,397,461 tonnes of CO2e, compared with in 1,453,817 in 2007-08. To put the data in context, one tonne of CO2 is equivalent in energy it takes to:

• boil water for 93,023 cups of tea
• drive 2,874 miles in a medium sized petrol car,
• leave a 60W light bulb on constantly for nearly 4.5 years.
• power an average home for 10 weeks.

Carbon footprint baseline and intensity, 2007-08

DIVISION	SCOPE 1 EMISSIONS	SCOPE 2 EMISSIONS	SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS	CARBON FOOTPRINT (metric tonnes of CO2e)	CARBON INTENSITY (kgCO2e/ £turnover)
UK Bus	629,818	21,343	132,241	783,402	0.79
UK Rail	156,971	259,439	51,053	467,463	0.52
United States	158,796	6,047	0	164,842	1.11
Canada	37,065	268	0	37,333	0.84
Group HQ and Shared Service Centre	0	716	60	776	-
TOTAL	982,650	287,813	183,354	1,453,817	0.70

Notes: Data is rounded to nearest tonne. There are areas that can be omitted where there fall under the de minimis rule, which allows elements below 1% of the total to be omitted within a total de minimis limit of 5%. The following elements are not included in the footprint data: fuel for company cars, small supplies and heating fuels for buildings, small fugitive refrigerant emissions, waste and business travel.

Carbon footprint and intensity, 2011-12

DIVISION	SCOPE 1 EMISSIONS	SCOPE 2 EMISSIONS	SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS	CARBON FOOTPRINT (metric tonnes of CO2e)	CARBON INTENSITY (kgCO2e/ £turnover)	CARBON INTENSITY CHANGE v BASELINE %
UK Bus	577,159	16,711	139,126	732,996	0.64	-18%
UK Rail	178,604	223,691	54,681	456,976	0.40	-23%
United States	163,410	4,762	0	168,171	0.70	-37%
Canada	38,366	273	0	38,638	0.63	-26%
Group HQ and Shared Service Centre	0	629	50	679	-	-
TOTAL	957,539	246,065	193,857	1,397,461	0.54	-22%

Notes: Data is rounded to nearest tonne. There are areas that can be omitted where there fall under the de minimis rule, which allows elements below 1% of the total to be omitted within a total de minimis limit of 5%. The following elements are not included in the footprint data: fuel for company cars, small supplies and heating fuels for buildings, small fugitive refrigerant emissions, waste and business travel.