If you cast your mind back to a year ago, Green Motion announced a new project that would offset total carbon emissions. This made us the first rental company to become carbon neutral in the country.
Well, you will be pleased to hear that we are committing to a second year of the scheme thanks to it proving a popular and worthwhile initiative.
Here's an overview of what the project has achieved and in the past year:
The carbon neutral project sees us offset the unavoidable carbon produced by our fleet, head office and branches across the UK to combat global climate change. This involves a £1.25 donation for every car hired. This donation can be made by the customer and if not, will be made by Green Motion.
Sustainability is very important to us and with rainforests around the world under threat of deforestation, we decided to offset to support the continued sustainability of the largest one on the planet, The Amazon Rainforest.
Based on an assessment of the carbon emissions from our fleet, it was estimated that close to £40,000 per year would be donated from on-road emissions alone. But what projects have we been working with?
When we launched the programme, it was decided that carbon emissions will be offset to the Florestal Santa Maria project, a FSM-REDD project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by stopping deforestation in Brazil.
After seeing positive effects from supporting this project which avoids planned deforestation, we turned our attention to preventing unplanned deforestation through The Portel-Pará Project. The Portel-Pará project prevents unplanned deforestation in native forests including logging, squatting and attempts to implement pastures.
The efforts of these projects and other measures have helped reduce deforestation levels in the rainforest from 7,893 sq/km in 2016 to 6,624 sq/km in 2017.
We’re not saying that our contribution has resulted in the change but it’s a collective effort from groups such as the two we have been supporting. We are thrilled to see that the levels of deforestation are reducing.
So, a big thank you to all our customers who have used our service or donated to the programme.
You’ve already made the right choice in using a low-emission vehicle but if you would like to offset the carbon used during your rental too, you can choose to do so when you make your booking online.
For more information about the range of electric and hybrid vehicles available for hire at a branch close to you or a destination that you’re visiting, use our online booking system.