With sustainability remaining a high priority for businesses of all sizes, fleet managers are working hard to reduce carbon emissions and meet ambitious sustainability targets ahead of the big ICE production switch off in 2030.
Europcar spoke to 300 professionals responsible for fleet management and business travel decisions to ask what they’ve changed, challenges they face, and what the future holds as they aim to reduce the impact of their business mobility. The results, published in ‘Switching sustainability from buzzword to business benefit’, show that while businesses have taken big steps in the sustainability journey, more remains to be done to cut mobility emissions to zero.
Organisations have started to wake up to what they need to do, but there must be continued focus on decarbonisation. According to Europcar’s study, over half already have some EVs on fleet; a similar proportion also have some hybrids and nearly a third want to increase their fully electric fleet even though the same proportion reported challenges with supply.
Getting to zero – not how but how fast
The question now is not how to get to zero emissions, but how fast businesses can get there. Europcar is supporting organisations, first by reducing emissions through younger, more modern cars and vans, before moving to fully electric.
In particular, flexible vehicle usage, from Corporate Car Sharing from a company’s car park to vehicle rental by the day, week, month or year, is helping businesses reduce emissions.
Sharing is caring
Focusing on greener mobility – and cutting costs – businesses are also asking
what forms of mobility would be best for each and every trip. They are reviewing where a range of tasks can be completed in one journey instead of multiple trips,
and if employees moving from one place to another can share vehicles.
The Europcar study found more than one in five businesses is looking into using car sharing – both public services (21%) and a solution hosted at the company premises (23%) – to reduce fleet emissions. It won’t always be possible, but even if a small number of journeys can be eliminated, it will have a positive impact.
Switching a fleet to zero emissions alternatives is too big a commitment for most businesses to undertake in one hit. More manageable steps such as car-sharing schemes, switching to hybrid vans, encouraging the use of public transport and walking or cycling can all make a significant difference to emissions and take businesses closer to their end goal of a zero-emission fleet.
There’s no question that there are still a number of challenges for businesses to overcome to go fully electric. But there’s definitely a clear will and commitment
and Europcar aims to be part of the solution to the climate crisis.
To find out more about how Europcar can help your organisation on your sustainability journey visit www.europcar.co.uk/business/electric or call 0371 384 0140
