Professional Builders Merchant

CO₂Count was introduced to existing customers of The Fuelcard People at the beginning of 2012 and is already delivering essential information for fleets across the country. Steve Clarke, head of marketing for Fuel Card Services, said: “Whether managers are running a couple of vans, dozens of cars or hundreds of trucks, they all face growing pressure to reduce their fleets’ carbon footprints. That has to start with measuring emissions.”

Alongside each regular invoice, a customer receives a corresponding emissions report in the form of a CO₂Count Certificate. This encompasses their whole fleet, split by vehicle fuel types: diesel, petrol, gasoil and LPG. For each of these, it shows the greenhouse gases produced during the invoice period: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide (CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O). The fleet manager can see, at a glance, the fleet’s emissions of each gas and the combined emissions total. “Your first CO₂Count Certificate gives a starting point,” said Steve Clarke, “and from there it is simple to track emissions across the fleet, and match them against any emissions reduction initiatives. This is an instant and continuing gain for the customer, but the enduring global benefit comes from our partnership with Cool Earth.”

Cool Earth, Europe’s fastest-growing environmental charity, has underlined the ecological value of CO₂Count by appointing The Fuelcard People as its first official Partner from within the automotive industry. For every CO₂Count Certificate issued, a donation is made to Cool Earth to further its work in protecting threatened rainforests. Backed by both David Attenborough and Lord Stern, Cool Earth works with local communities to protect rainforest in imminent danger of being cleared. It does so in such a way that the protected area then blockades tens of thousands of acres of adjacent forest. Cool Earth funds a local trust, making the local community the legal custodians of the land, and uses community rangers and satellite imagery to monitor and protect the rainforest 24/7 from illegal activity. It also institutes sustainable employment programmes, and supports schools and clinics, so that indigenous rainforest communities do not suffer from lost logging income.

Matthew Owen, Cool Earth director, said: “After checking the environmental credentials of the CO₂Count service, we are happy to recognise its importance. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is vital for the planet’s future and independent emissions monitoring is key to tracking the results of any reduction initiative. The automotive sector is not known for being particularly green, so CO₂Count stands out as a serious measure in its own right. The donation to Cool Earth is a welcome bonus, which should protect vast stretches of threatened rainforests.”

March 30th, 2012

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