Ten companies join Quattroruote to cut their corporate fleet’s CO2 emissions by 10% in 2008.

It has always been Quattroruote’s approach to be pro-active and do something positive and concrete about the larger problems facing the automotive world. We put safety first, then quality, and today we discuss the environment. Everybody is talking about it these days, perhaps too much. It is the real initiatives that make an immediate impact but these are few and far between. Conferences, debates, prototypes at auto shows all focus their efforts on tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, however, it is possible to make humble but significant changes for the better sooner rather than later. Some use the media to promote their ‘baby steps’ but its ususally just for show.

Take for example carbon dioxide, the villain of our times, guilty of the greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change and consider that in reality only 12% of total CO2 emissions come from cars (U2 2004), by contrast industrial emissions account for 16% and energy production for 39%. We deal with cars so that is what we must and will address, CO2 emissions, thankfully, provide obejective data, measureable with precision, derived from consumption, and reflect engine efficiency, mass of the vehicle, and technical specifications. After having resolved legislation over other harmful emissions, Brussels is finally ready to address the CO2 issue, announcing drastic regulations, that will affect a whole range of cars, and every car maker. Until these regulations come into effect something more practical can be, and as its part of Quattroruote’s DNA to do so, we went all the way.

For starters we have adopted a large green are near the Parco del Ticino, 240,000 square meters of forrest, where thanks to the contributions of our subscribers we will rellocate 21,000 trees (like elm, oak, and ash trees) that will absorb 3,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions during their life-cycle thus storing them in their wood for all time. It is in the same spirit that we launched a huge inititative calling on companies with high volumes of vehicle use to make a change in 2008. In fact, who else makes more use of their four wheels than those who use their vehicles for work? Long distances multiplied by numerous vehicles used/owned by these companies. To this end we wanted our project to commit some of the largest companies in our country to the seemingly easy task of reducing their fleet’s CO2 emissions by 10% during 2008.

We called the project 10x10: 10 large companies that have signed up to reduce their emissions by 10%. A realistic goal, made possible. Our appeal was not in vain, in fact it was welcomed with opened doors and enthusiasm, a testimony to the growing sensibility on the topic despite objectives’s difficulty. Some of the companies have already started or integrated emission reducing programs and were willing to share their obstacles and achievements while others decided to trust Quattroruote’s ‘know how’ putting their technical team at our disposition to introduce significant changes to their company’s car policies. We are talking about major players, not only Italian but international groups as well, with numerous employees and vehicles in constant use; independently, each one of them could have a significant impact let alone multiplied on a larger scale. We are talking here about a reduction of thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions.

WE SHOULD BE MANY MORE

Our aspiration is more ambitious, we wish the initial 10x10 to transform themselves into 10x100 and then 10x1000, turning the ‘savings’ into tens of thousands a year. Circulation of ideas can make this happen: by sharing the fabulous 10’s story after having followed our initiative, by giving examples, giving advice, even on promoting it on our website and by using the companie’s communication networks (websites, intranet, house organ), we could create an element of emulation. If the employers and employees of other companies undesrtand that by making different choices and small sacrifices they can realistically contribute to saving the planet we would have all achieved a huge goal. If, as a result, smaller businesses and the self-employed aspire to the ‘big’ car policies that would be yet another level of success. Those who have participated in our 10x10 project have agreed to share their experiences and findings for the greater good. If in the end the message passes from one company’s car fleet to each one of us car owners the advantages could be exponential: maybe we will see less Hummers and more compact cars, a benefit to us all. We will pollute less, burn less resources, leaving behind a less destroyed planet, all without much of a sacrifice. No-one, much less Quattroruote, is asking to turn back time to the middle ages’s transportation system but only by starting to change our behaviour today can we avoid the worst catatrophy tomorrow. In this special insert you will find a series of suggestions developed by our tecnical team: small changes that are valid for everyone from professional to the occasional driver. By adopting them we can see that not only will be polluting less we will also be saving ourselves money. Hereafter we breakdown the experiences of the first companies to have followed our program showing what this is all about and sharing the forces at play. Its not the whole lot: eventhough everyone agreed to the general conditions some are still completing the formal procedures. We will endeavour to bring you all the initiatives and the results for those who wish to follow us on this path.

CO2, WHAT IS IT?

What we commonly know as CO2 is a gas made up of two atoms of oxygen and one of carbon; it is very common and is also used to make drinks fizzy. But it is a greenhouse effect gas so in concentrated quantities it can cause changes in the climate. Among the sources of CO2 cars are considered responsible for 12% (housing accounts for 19%). Carbon dioxide has nothing to do with the anit-emission limits but rather is the proportion vis a vis consumption that is significant: the more we burn the more we emit, and this is proportional to how many km/miles we travel.

How to cut emissions:

The first step to polluting less is to consume less. Here are a few words of advice: 1 – Do not warm up the car, even if it is diesel. 2 – Change gears upwards as quickly as possible. 3 – Keep an eye on the road and adapt your speed to the traffic and road conditions. 4 – Slow down. 5 – Remove all excess weight such as roof racks or ski racks if you aren’t using them. 6 – Use air-conditioning and heating as little as possible, avoiding colder settings the most. 7 – Turn off all electrical accessories. 8 – Turn off the engine when you stop (even at the shortest of stops can consume up to half a liter an hour).

AUTOGRILL

A very renown restaurant company, today in large part doing business in foreign countries, and not only associated present on highways, but in airports and malls, Autogrill has a fleet of 176 company vehicles, used by directors, managers, and employees. Most of the cars (60.8%) are station wagons, the rest vans (26.7%) and saloons (22%). All in all the vehicles travel over 8,255,350 km a year expending an estimated 1600 tonnes of CO2 emissions every twelve months. Aware of their impact on the environment the company decided to significantly reduce their fleet’s CO2 emissions by turning to Quattruruote to adopt the best course of action. From a statistical standpoint a recommended course of action was developed alongside the integration of a new set of values; if until now the choice of size and segment of vehicle were based on coorporate image or personal or family needs (hence the preference for flagship cars and station wagons) now the list of available cars also reflects other criteria such as environmental compabability and the option to chose ‘trendy’ cars with low emission (for example Mini and Fiat 500 in diesel versions). Other criteria involve a displacement reduction whilst retaining the same amount of power output, internal ‘down-sizing’ of segments and the selection of models with lowest emissions within a segment. Autogrill has agreed to adopt this new strategy to renew its own fleet.

AUTOSTRADE PER L’ITALIA

Over 3,400 km of highway, more than half of the entire national roadways, are run by Autostrade per L’Italia founded in 1956 to implement and develop the ‘backbone’ of our transportation infrastrucutre. Today the company’s highway network connects 15 regions, 60 provinces, 19 aiports, 26 ports, and 260 train stations in an area that is equal to 85% of the national GDP. On average 4 million travellers use this network everyday; in the last three years traffic has increased by 5% while accidents and deaths have decreased by 15%. Autostrade per L’Italia has, all in all, 7,760 employes that use 1,663 vehicles of all kinds, from regular vans to street cleaners/sweepers, and service cars (owned, rented or leased) by virtue of agreement with the Ministry Internal Affairs to the highway police: these service 300 station wagons are Alfa Romeo «156», BMW «320d», Volvo «V50» and Renault Laguna. In total the company’s fleet covers around 54 million km a year.

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB

This pharmaceutical multinational has three head offices with around 2,500 employees. In Rome there are almost 850 employees, of which 680 have the right to use company cars; mostly managers, or employees of the ‘external force’ divided up into scientists and area managers. All of the cars are long leases with 36 or 48 month contracts with average annual mileages of 30,000km. The fleet is comprised of a dozen models amongst them VW Passat 2.0, BMW 320, Audi A4 2.7, and VW Golf. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s strategy, as is common practice amongst multinationals, has always been focused on driver safety and saving the environment; their existing car policy already stipulates that all the diesel cars have to have particle emission filters and that there be a fire-extinguisher, window hammer, and first aid kit on board. In addition, all the drivers have to pass a safety driving course. From 2008 they will also have in place a course in eco-compatibility as well as a no-smoking policy. In an effort to further cut their CO2 emissions quota they have also studied the possibility of equipping their fleet with on-board instruments that allow the driver to monitor the pressure of the tyres and the possibility of renting bifuel cars so they can use GPL or methane.

COCA COLA HBC ITALIA

The largest producer and distributor of the Coca-Cola brand in Italy and operated in our country via six factories, four warehouses, and one plant that maintains vending machines. There are 2,800 employees with a commercial task force of 1,300 subdivided into three sales areas. There are 15 product groups, creating a total of 156 formats; besides drinks like Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Kinley, Beverly, Nestea, and more, the company is also active in the mineral water market (Lilia, Seveva and other brands). Products are on sale in over 14,000 large-scale sales points, 200,000 points of sale in places like hotels, restaurants, catering and with 100,000 private clients. Coca-Cola HBC Italia’s company fleet consists of almost 1,400 vehicles exchanged every 28-60 months, the average distances traveled are from 35,500 (for directors) to 48,300 km a year (for area managers). Other great road ‘consumers’ are the technicians (37,000 / year), managers (46,000 km/year), and the ‘market developers’ (46,000 km.year). The average annual mileage for the entire fleet is 38,800 km a year per vehicle, covering a distance of 55,158 million kilometers every 12 months. The company has estimated that the total consumption of fuel a year is equal to 3.3 million liters, and total CO2 emissions stands at 9,321 tonnes based on an average of 169 grams per km.

INTESA SANPAOLO

The Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo is the largest bank group in Italy with around 10.5 million clients and one of the main banks in Europe. Intesa Sanpaolo was created from the merger of Sanpaolo IMI and Banca Intesa, two banks that have played a major role in the consolidation of the banking system in Italy. The Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leader in financial services for both families and industries, focusing on pensions, savings, foreign relations, factoring, insurance, and as a bank intermediary. As of June 2007, the structure of the Gruppo included 7,536 branches, or which 6,282 were in Italy and 1,254 in foreign countries, totalling 97,728 employees. The bank has at its disposal a fleet of just over 2,000 cars, more or less all segment B cars, with an average mileage of 20,000km/year. As far as the specific management of transportation within the company is concerned the Direzione Immobili e Acquisti of the bank is managed by the Unita Corporate Social Responsibility (Car), and is developing an environmental responsibility code to complement the political direction the Gruppo took on at the beginning of 2007.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

Founded in 1886 and currently with 54 partners in the country with a total of 115,000 employees worldwide, Johnson & Johnson is structured into three main groups that operate in the pharmaceutical sector; personal hygiene products, dietetic products, and diagnostic and medical instruments. In Italy they are represented by several companies (Janssen-Cilag, Johnson & Johnson Medical Spa, Johnson & Johnson), divided into six different locations they total about 2,500 employees. The group has had their employees adhere to their own corporate code that continuously addresses issues of safety, which is of particular importance to those employees who travel for work. The company's fleet is comprised of 1,272 vehicles that cover about 52 million kilometers a year. The company’s strategy named ‘Safe Fleet’ passes the responsibility of the car onto the driver (teaching them about maintenance of the vehicle), distributes educational CD-Roms, requires participation of safety courses and promotes ‘virtuous’ driver conduct as an instrument of evaluation of the company’s global image.

PIRELLI

Pirelli Tyre, fifth manufacturer worldwide of tires, is a leader in its range, as is active in the research, development, production, and commercialization of tires destined to several different types of vehicles. Concentrating primarily on the luxury sector of the automotive industry and characterized by a high level of technological content and high performance, Pirelli Tyre has a strong presence in Europe and South America and has a consolidated collaborative rapports with the most prestigious carmakers and motorbike manufacturers. Production is distributed between 24 factories, 5 of which in Italy, 9 new ones in Brazil, Romania and China. The commercial side is made up of 10,000 distributors and resellers in over 160 countries employing 25,000 members of staff. The company’s fleet in Italy is made up of 220 cars that cover an average of 7.5 million km a year.

SANOFI AVENTIS

A pharmaceutical company that is a leader on a worldwide level Sanofi Aventis researches, develops, and distributes products that therapeutically help to live a better life; registered in the stock markets in Paris and New York, it has a strong presence in Italy with six factories in charge of all production in Europe, a scientific network of around 1,500 collaborators and an R&D center in Milan where the administration and legal headquarters is also located. The Italian fleet is made up of around 1,700 vehicles, of which 90% are dedicated to sales and are diesel. In 2006 the total mileage covered by their fleet was 35.6 million kilometers.

TNT EXPRESS ITALY

TNT N.V. is a Dutch group operating in postal services and the transportation of express mail in over 200 countries, and has been operating for more than 70 years worldwide with over 159,000 direct collaborators; they are also partners with United Nations’s food and health programs. TNT Express Italy is Italy’s filiation with a network of 134 branches, 16 ‘hubs’ (sorting centers), 5 customer service centers and over 1,200 TNT Points; there are 3,100 direct collaborators, 1,300 indirect, and 4,200 drivers, all servicing 100,000 clients for a total of 180,000 deliveries a day and 320,000 registered movements. The fleet is made up of 406 company cars, 1,000 heavy duty vehicles dedicated to night transport, and 3,200 vehicles used for distribution; in 2006 their total mileage covered was approximately 153 million kilometers, with a consumption rate of 25.3 million liters of fuel. TNT Express Italy is already involved in a project to help save the environment called “Planet Me” that amongst other goals is trying to achieve an average rate of 20g/km of CO2 emissions per vehicle by the year 2012. Other initiatives, like the trial use of hybrid vehicles, introducing incentive bonuses for those who chose low emission vehicles, safety and eco-compatible driving courses are also underway.

If you have successfully incorporated eco-compatibility within your company’s fleet please tell us all about it by sending us an email to progetto10x10@quattroruote.it