Environmental Update
Computer Cab plc - Green Facts
Employees of Computer Cab have a great deal to shout about when it comes to staying green, having enjoyed success in many areas of the current green campaign. These can be attributed to an excellent group effort across all sites.
Aberdeen call centre
For instance did you know that the Aberdeen call centre has successfully managed to lower electricity and gas consumption between 2007 and 2008. Gas consumption in particular stands out as the overall consumption in 2008 was 24% lower then 2007 whilst electricity consumption fell by 5%.
Aberdeen has also helped in spreading the message of staying green by providing environmental awareness training to a total of 450 drivers, meaning the initial target of 250 drivers was easily met and bettered.
Service partners
Increasing the environmental awareness amongst London service partners was also an objective for 2008. A total of 54 service partners were trained and are now more environmentally conscious.
Head office
Paper consumption targets were also set and at their Head Office in Harrow paper consumption is 28% below the target set, which is great as this is something that all employees can help out with.
Fleet service centre
Building further on this the fleet service centre has reduced the amount of paper being used for driver statements and customer invoices considerably by 56% between 2007 and 2008, by turning to e-statements as the greener alternative.
By using tyres inflated with pure Nitrogen instead of standard compressed air, they last longer and keep their pressure longer. The latter means improved fuel economy and an overall greener fleet of taxis.
Taxi House
Electricity consumption at Taxi House has also reduced by 5% between 2007 and 2008. Replacing old equipment with new energy efficient equipment, motion sensor lighting, PC power saver modes have all contributed to helping reduce the amount of electricity used.
All London sites
Across all 3 London sites the percentage of waste now being recycled has increased from 45.43% in 2007 to 51.57% by the end of 2008, long may this continue.
Overall across all London sites we have stayed below our total carbon emissions target and have bettered it by 4.55%.
This has been helped by the fact that air travel in 2008 equalled 13.47 tonnes of CO2 and in 2007 it equalled 21.45 tonnes of CO2, that’s a reduction of 37.2%.
In addition to a reduction in air travel, 30.43% of all stationary purchased is environmentally friendly and all stationary purchased comes from companies with local depots to our sites, to reduce CO2 emissions on all deliveries.
All this puts Computer Cab plc in a great position to follow suit in 2009.
Computer Cab makes the Sunday Times Top 50 Best Green Companies List
Pictured above (from left to right) Simon Haynes - Environmental Manager, Computer Cab plc, John Lee - CEO, Computer Cab plc and Alistair McCall - Sunday Times Correspondent
Wednesday 14th May, Computer Cab were invited to pick up the Sunday Times Best Green Companies award.
“The 50 companies listed in this report are all enterprising pioneers - enterprising, enlightened and fizzing with new ideas. All have a common sense of purpose about their corporate social responsibility.
There may be plenty of environmental awards but this is the first that has both a robust methodology to measure environmental performance and a survey of each company’s staff to find out whether green sheen is more than skin deep.”
Richard Caseby, Managing Editor - The Sunday Times
“Winning the award and making the list of 50 best green companies and coming 44th in the Top 50 is a great achievement for our team at Computer Cab.
The award recognises the commitment of both our staff and our drivers who are very environmentally conscious and adopt best ‘green’ practice whenever possible. The competition required the full involvement of all our staff in responding individually and anonymously to a questionnaire and our environmental efforts were audited by Bureau Veritas at first hand.
The competition attracted businesses throughout the UK, large and small, ranging from banking giants to smaller companies. Interestingly many of those in London who entered the competition are Computer Cab customers.
We are delighted with our award and we will continue to show our commitment to the environment.”
Andrew Robson, Director of Marketing, Sales & Communications - Computer Cab plc
The Sunday Times worked with environmental consultants. Bureau Veritas were the external auditors and market research group, Munro Global devised the methodology for the competition.
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Going that green bit further
Andrew Robson planting the ComfortDelGro tree - a Paperbark Maple
Computer Cab, which has already built up a commanding environmental position, went one little bit green further on the Saturday 29th March when staff were involved in tree planting for the Bromley by Bow residents.
Supporting Trees for Cities, an independent charity which works with local communities on tree-planting and landscaping projects, Computer Cab provided funding and manpower for this project.
The charity was re landscaping an area ion the Bow Bridge estate, with the emphasis on creating an attractive open recreational space for the local community.
Holders of the international environmental standard, ISO14001, Computer Cab has progressively extended its environmental efforts. Last year a major step was taken with the establishment of the ComfortDelGro Carbon Fund. This fund offsets the carbon footprint of account customer journeys - at no extra cost to the customer.
This year Computer Cab is working with leading carbon management company Carbon Clear on several important initiatives world wide.
The projects selected not only offset carbon emissions but will improve the health and livelihoods of the communities involved, and so will help ‘real people’.
Carbon Offsetting Programme
From November 2007 Computer cab plc will offset the carbon emissions generated by our account customer journeys.
This will be done through the ComfortDelGro carbon offsetting fund, and customers will see their carbon count and the offset each month on their invoice.
Download the ComforDelGro pledge to cut emissions and increase recycling efforts (in .pdf format)
Investment in cleaner taxi solutions
Earlier in 2007 Computer Cab plc announced an exciting new partnership with Gastech E&E, an Australian based company which specialises in bringing cleaner engine solutions to market.
Computer Cab committed to a substantial investment in developing an entirely new LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) solution for London taxis. Traditionally most London taxis have been diesel powered and recent emissions regulations mean that those diesel engines are cleaner than ever but Computer Cab has a longer term aim to develop an even cleaner taxi.
About our LPG powered Taxi
What is it?
- The main components of LPG are propane and butane - free from toxic substances
Why LPG?
- Zero harmful particulates are emitted from this LPG engine compared to diesel.
- Reduced CO2 and NoX emissions compared to diesel engines.
- No nasty exhaust fumes or black smoke from LPG.
Driver benefits
- The acceleration is smoother and more responsive than a diesel taxi.
- LPG is available at over 200 filling stations across London and the Home Counties and is cheaper than diesel.
The new engine conversion to taxis means that diesel is dispensed with in its entirety and replaced with an LPG powered engine. For the environment that means a much cleaner running vehicle.
We now have this LPG taxi on the streets and carrying passengers following approval from the Public Carriage Office. Over the coming months the performance of this new engine will be closely measured to verify its excellent green credentials and efficiency.
This commitment to make the air Londoners breathe much cleaner is a perfect accompaniment to our other efforts to reduce the impact our services have on the environment.
Keeping our fleet green
Since 2005 a clear timetable for making London’s taxis cleaner has been laid out by Transport for London and Computer Cab was the only company to offer its taxi fleet some help in meeting these requirements. By providing taxi drivers with discounted systems and a deferred payment system our fleets found it easier than any other to make their cabs greener.
Now all our taxis are Euro 3 compliant and because we have a young fleet a high proportion of the fleet is already compliant with Euro 4.
Most recently Computer Cab issued the popular ‘Make London cleaner by driving greener’ handout to all its 3,500 subscribing taxi drivers, helping them to adjust their driving style and vehicle standard to ensure lower emissions and cleaner air as they drive around town.
Re-certification of ISO 14001
Computer Cab was the first taxi company to achieve the ISO 14001 accreditation in 2004. Again in 2007 we have proved our commitment to the environment by successfully achieving the re-certification of ISO 14001.
Recent environmental initiatives include:
- Reduction in air travel using video conferencing as the preferred option.
- Purchase of hybrid cars for Flightlink (executive fleet).
- Customers statements printed on 80-20 recycled paper.
- Recycling A4 envelopes as internal envelopes.
- All departments at Computer Cab print their material on 100% recycled paper.
- Energy saving light bulbs and motion sensor lights have been implemented across our company sites.
- All electronic equipment is set to energy saving mode.
