8:37am Wednesday 17th June 2009
By Helen Mead
For many people, buses are a vital part of daily life.
They carry us to and from work, transport us to the shops and on trips to places of interest.
Buses are also green – a bus ferrying 50 people to work is cutting road traffic, reducing congestion and producing fewer emissions.
But these are not the only reasons buses can help the environment. Behind the scenes of the UK’s leading transport operator First, whose buses can be seen across Bradford, much work is being done to lessen the negative impact of travel on the environment.
The company is also working to manage its own environmental impacts and has a well-established programme for doing so.
First introduced an environmental policy in 1998. “The company was quite forward-thinking and realised that the energy we use in our depots impacts on the environment and costs us money, so we started to monitor energy-use in buildings,” says First’s group head of environment Katerina Robinson.
More than 20 years on, corporate social responsibility – the means of delivering more sustainable transport services – is high on the company’s agenda, including a detailed climate change strategy.
“All our operating companies, bus and train, have environmental ‘champions’ – managers who are well-supported in their work,” says Katerina, speaking at First Bradford’s headquarters in Bowling Back Lane. “They are invaluable.”
The firm’s main environmental impacts are atmospheric emissions and contamination that may arise during the use and management of fuel and chemicals.
New vehicles have, by law, to be fitted with modern European engines, which use more fuel than older ones. “We need to counteract that,” says Katerina. “Fuel consumption is influenced by many factors – the age and weight of the bus, the quality of fuel, driving techniques, the route taken and the number of passengers travelling.
“We make sure we buy the best quality fuel – we look at around 200 products – to influence efficiency, and we use fuel additives to improve the way it burns and therefore its energy content,” explains Katerina. Additives have been shown to improve the efficiency of the fuel – ultra-low sulphur diesel with a proportion of bio-diesel – by around four per cent.
“Once we have a perfect fuel, we want to manage it as best we can,” adds Katerina. “We make sure the storage tanks are leak and contaminate-free.”
Bus exhausts have been designed to reduce harmful pollutant emissions, such as particulates and nitrogen oxides.
Fuel-efficiency is calculated as litres used per kilometre, and work out CO2 emissions per passenger per journey. To examine how driving technique affects fuel efficiency, a number of drivers were asked to follow the same route in the same vehicle. The results revealed a 40 per cent difference in fuel consumption. “We know that the way drivers accelerate and brake influences it,” says Katerina.
In two depots, Bradford and one in London, the company is trialling a new technology, ‘Green Road’, in which a black box recorder is installed in buses to record acceleration and vehicle position via satellite navigation, sending data to a central computer which drivers and managers can access. The system has an in-built traffic light system, with green meaning greater fuel efficiency. “Drivers can see how they perform,” says Katerina.
Performance is monitored using the yardstick of the same route driven by a driving instructor, with a trade union representative. “They drive each type of vehicle on each route and will be monitored against that baseline,” adds Katerina.
There are reward incentives for drivers who perform well. “Drivers can access their web account, look at how they drive and how they could improve. It serves as a tool for training.”
“We also look at the buses themselves and have challenged bus manufacturers to ensure that future vehicles are as light as possible.”
Tests also reveal that buses spend around 30 per cent of their time on the road ‘idling’, while waiting at bus stops for instance. New buses are fitted with a special engine shut-off device, which activates after four minutes of idling. Tyre pressures on all vehicles are also regularly checked to improve fuel efficiency.
In the immediate future, First is committed to converting buses in the UK to sulphur-free, five per cent biodiesel, so long as the supply is available, and from a sustainable source.
In the longer-term, alternative fuels will play more of a role, with hybrid vehicles using diesel and electric currently being trialled in London.
Campaigns to encourage people to use buses and make travel a pleasant experience are on-going. One of these, ‘It Is Your Bus. Respect It’, uses quirky cartoon characters, each representing a major customer complaint such as the playing of loud music or eating hot food on buses. Another campaign in the pipeline, Staycation, will encourage people who holiday in the UK to use buses.
This year, 75 new buses will be introduced in West Yorkshire, around half in Bradford. “We are making a massive financial investment in West Yorkshire,” says the company’s public relations manager for its bus division Duncan McGraw. Depending on their condition, vehicles no longer in use are either scrapped, sold, or donated to Third World countries.
Environmental awareness among employees has been raised through an imaginative booklet Small Changes BIG Difference, which contains a collection of posters that have been displayed around offices and depots. Green driving techniques, general switching off unused computers, reporting dripping taps, and recycling general waste are among the areas covered. The company recycles 30 per cent of its general waste and some depots are aiming for zero landfill.
All depots have bus washing facilities, at which water usage has been cut by 25 per cent.
A driving force behind Aberdeen-based First’s environmental strategies is chief executive Sir Moir Lockhead. “He’s passionate about it,” says Duncan.
Katerina is proud of what the company has achieved in a relatively short time, and of its well-deserved environmental accolades. “Because we started early, we have many awards for our environmental policies. ”We want to see a shift from cars to buses and trains, which are a more environmentally-friendly way of getting around.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/trade_directory/