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There are several ways that you can work to reduce the impact that transport related to your organisation has on the environment. This can involve making changes to commuting habits and business transport.
Commuting
For many organisations, the environmental impact of their employees commenting is a large contributor to their emissions. Therefore, trying to change commuting habits is a quick way to have a substantial influence on your scope 3 emissions. You can implement these changes by:
Developing a travel plan that utilises more environmentally friendly modes of transport
Encouraging behaviour change in employees
Encouraging the use of walking, cycling and using public transport over the use of the private car
Joining the cycle to work scheme
Allowing some working from home
To make implementing these changes as easy as possible for you, Plymouth City Council has a couple of options for support:
Plymotion
Plymotion is a scheme to make it as easy as possible for your organisation to utilise more sustainable travel options in Plymouth. ‘Plymotion at Your Workplace’ offers a free personalised travel planning services helping you to develop a more sustainable travel policy. This program includes engagement events with employees and even offers free bike safety checks.
Plymouth City Council’s Workplace travel grant
As part of the Council’s Productive Plymouth Transforming Cities Fund programme, funded by the Department for Transport, the Council is providing workplace travel grants of up to £25,000 per site to local organisations to help them introduce measures to enable more trips to be made by sustainable transport. These are match-funded grants with the Council investing up to £25,000, per site, in a scheme. The Council’s contribution is a maximum of 75% of the pre-VAT scheme cost.
Business travel
Business travel is another large contributor to the emissions of an organisation but, once again, making a few changes has the potential to make a significant impact to your carbon emissions:
Favour digital meetings over in-person meetings.
Utilise electric vehicles for business travel when needed, either through hiring an electric car or purchasing an electric pool car.
Where possible, share travelling to reduce the number of vehicles being used.
Transition you fleet of vehicles to electric where possible. These brief questions can help to outline if an electric van could work for your organisation: Electric vehicle tools - Energy Saving Trust. Additionally, the Carbon trust has a fleet upgrade tool that can help to identify upgrade options and estimate the cost saving for your organisation: Fleet upgrade tool | The Carbon Trust
Currently, there are some financial incentives available to help your organisation purchase and utilise electric vehicles, there include:
Plug-in car grants
Will pay for 35% of the purchase price of a vehicle, up to a maximum of £1500, where the recommended retail price is less than £35,000. The maximum is increased to £2500 for wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Low-emission vehicles eligible for a plug-in grant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Plug in van grants
Will pay for 35% of the purchase price for eligible vehicles, up to £2500 for small vans and £5000 for large vans.
Low-emission vehicles eligible for a plug-in grant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Workplace charging scheme
Offers up to £350 per charging socket for up to 40 sockets.
Grant schemes for electric vehicle charging infrastructure - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Electric vehicle home charging scheme
The Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) provides grant funding of up to 75% towards the cost of installing electric vehicle smart chargepoints at domestic properties. From April 2022, this scheme will only be available to homeowners who live in flats or people in rental accommodation.
Grant schemes for electric vehicle charging infrastructure - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Alongside the environmental advantages of low emissions vehicles there are also tax benefits for these vehicles:
Reduced, or no, zero vehicle excise duty: Vehicle tax rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Lower company car tax: Calculate tax on employees' company cars - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
When buying a car that emits no CO2 (fully electric) businesses can write down 100% of the purchase price against their corporation tax liability.
This tool can help you compare electrical vehicles and find the right one for your organisation: Search for the right electric vehicle for you - Energy Saving Trust
For more advice on electric car and van use for SMEs visit the energy saving trust: Electric car and van advice for SMEs on green travel choices - Energy Saving Trust
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