On zero emissions day, our #netzeropioneer Mark Ashenden, plant and transport supply chain manager talks about Costain’s approach to decarbonising its fleet.

“Today is Zero Emission Day (21 September), designed to give the world a break from fossil fuels and raise awareness about the harm caused by carbon emissions. It provides the perfect opportunity to update on our progress and plans to help accelerate the race to net zero.

As part of our Climate Change Action Plan which sets out our commitment to deliver low carbon solutions to every client by 2023 and to be net zero by 2035 at the latest and in line with our EV100 commitment, we began working on our own Car Fleet Transition Plan in 2020.

By 2030, the transition of our 3,000 company vehicles will be complete and we are already making substantial progress on the journey transitioning the whole car fleet to a 100% zero emission fleet, comprising 100% electric and hydrogen vehicles by 2030.

• In 2021, 82% of the cars delivered to our staff have been ultralow or low emissions vehicles (ULEVs and LEVs).
• 46% of our company car fleet is now low emission
• 91% of the vehicles of our company car selection list are Ultralow Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) and Low Emission Vehicles (LEVs).
• We have partnered with Elmtronics as our charging point provider and now have a common EV (Electric Vehicle) charging platform ‘Hubsta’ across our business.
• We recently installed twelve new charging points in our Maidenhead head office and will be installing more at other sites. Costain charge points can be used with a non-subscription, pay-on-use service.
• We are offering employees discounted rates with Pod Point for the installation of home wall chargers.

Car fleet mileage makes up a significant piece of our Group carbon footprint and can be reduced by the adoption of ultra-low and zero emission vehicles such as hybrid, electric or hydrogen cars.

To ensure everyone in our fleet is driving a zero-emission vehicle by 2030, we will offer a 100% zero emission company car list by 2027 allowing diesel, petrol, and hybrid drivers sufficient time to transition from their current company cars into zero emission vehicles.

Furthermore, to ensure everyone in our car allowance fleet is also driving a zero-emission vehicle, we will begin to merge the requirements for our car allowance fleet to mirror the standards of company cars. By 2030 car allowance will only be eligible for zero emission vehicle drivers (i.e., electric or hydrogen cars). “

Read more here on how we are also decarbonising plant on major infrastructure programmes and helping clients to decarbonise their corporate car fleets.

Link list

• Find out more about the work of our #NetZeroPioneers
• Read our response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report