From being an afterthought, to now being top of mind, sustainability is becoming not just an attribute, but also the primary driving force for growth and success in business. The area of corporate travel, in particular, is an obvious area for companies to show their commitment to the environment. Group travel has an exceedingly low carbon footprint via coaches when compared with all other modes of transport.
National Coach Hire in the UK is proud to support its clients’ environmental sustainability goals by amalgamating all group travel into large capacity vehicles achieving significantly lower carbon footprints per person than any of the other alternatives.
Carbon Maths of Group Travel
It is possible to compare the environmental impact of travel based on passenger counts by collecting each journey’s CO₂ emissions data, which allows us to measure how many passengers share the journey. For instance, a full-size coach, with 50 passengers aboard, will produce a fraction of the CO₂ per person of 50 equivalent individual car journeys. Coach travel has consistently been demonstrated to produce the lowest carbon footprint per passenger-kilometre of all motorised transport mediums within the UK, when compared to other modes of transportation such as domestic airline travel, as well as cars and rail travel for instance.
Coaches versus Cars: Comparison of Group Travel
Twenty colleagues (assuming they all drive very similar and efficient modern vehicles) driving separately to attend a conference results in total CO₂ emissions that would be considered significant; however, if you were to take all 20 of these colleagues and place them in a single midi coach to attend the same conference, you would create approximately one-quarter of the carbon footprint total of those 20 individual journeys. If your business is measuring Scope 3 emissions, or reporting on your ESG principles, this absolute difference in CO₂ emissions between a group of 20 people travelling in separate cars and travelling together in one midi coach will be relevant and measurable to your business.
Coaches vs Domestic Flights
Domestic aviation produces a far larger carbon footprint per passenger than surface transport options. When journey time permits – for example London to Edin borough would be approximately 8 hour by coach – choosing a long-distance executive coach over a domestic flight is an environmentally conscious choice. The difference between carbon emissions for each passenger, compared to the alternative would be 10 times.
Modern Coach Technology
Today’s commercial coaches are far more carbon-efficient than older generations. With Euro 6 engine standards that are mandatory across all current UK coach fleets, the total amount of NOx and particulate emissions produced by modern coaches is significantly less than older technology (generally half). As all fleets transition towards hybrid/electric powertrains, the environmental argument for using coaches will only become stronger.
Consolidation for Sustainability
Of all possible sustainability choices for a business regarding corporate travel, the one that would have the greatest impact is consolidation. Instead of traveling by car or taxi, consolidating travel means traveling in large coaches. Coach hiring provides this exact opportunity, and the environmental savings increase with each person choosing to ride on the coach instead of driving their own car.
If your business is committed to sustainability, then using coach hire for group travel can be one of the easiest and most beneficial options available to you as part of your corporate travel program. National Coach Hire offers businesses the ability to lower their group travel emissions by matching fleet size with passenger volume so that they can maximise their carbon footprint reduction per person. If you want sustainable corporate group travel that meets your travel needs without sacrificing comfort or professionalism, National Coach Hire has proven to be a successful partner in delivering both.