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Introduction Our people Our customers
HVO trial
Our hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) trial on nine
of our vehicles at our Edinburgh depot commenced
in May, later than planned due to operational issues
and then extended further to ensure sufficient data.
We've been assessing the feasibility of using HVO
more widely across our fleet from both a commercial
and operational point of view, as manufacturers
claim it can deliver up to 90% less CO2e compared
to regular diesel, so we are carrying out our own
emissions testing to verify this claim. HVO is
made up of waste and residual oils, so no virgin
oils are involved, which adds to its sustainable
credentials. We are following the trial closely as
initial operational results are promising, but we
need to assess the full commercial impact of HVO
and complete emissions tests to evidence the
environmental benefit of switching to HVO.
Fleet composition
In 2021/22, we operated a total of 173 vans and
1042 trucks. At present, 97% of our vans and 70%
of our trucks are operating with Euro VI engines,
the best performing diesel engines in terms of
particulate emissions and air quality. 70% is lower
than our forecasted percentage as we are running
older vehicles longer than usual, due to Covid-related
impacts and new vehicle availability issues. This has
also contributed to a slightly lower KMs per litre
figure than usual, as can be seen in the table of
environmental performance at the end of this section.
Renewable
fuel trial
70%
Euro VI
engines
1,042
trucks
Our planet
Employee business mileage
In common with most businesses, we have
decreased our employee business mileage, as
working from home and virtual meetings reduce
the need to travel. Please note the addition of
hybrids to the fleet from 2021/22 onwards; these
are reported in mileage not litres. These are shown
in the Table of Environmental performance at the
end of this section.
Refrigerants
There are a range of different refrigerant gases
currently in use across our estate, with differing
global warming potential (GWP) ratings. We now
have five sites operating chill chambers using CO2
(with a GWP of only 1) and eight sites operating
chill chambers using ammonia (with a GWP of
zero). All remaining chill chambers are operating
using refrigerants with a higher GWP but our
preference for all new/replacement installations
going forwards is CO2.