Greenmotion become the first vehicle rental company in the UK to go Carbon Neutral!

With 16 locations across the UK, the vehicle rental company Greenmotion officially became the first vehicle rental company in the UK to become Carbon Neutral.

By investing in the latest green vehicle technology as well as in electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicles, Greenmotion already offers the lowest CO2 emission car hire of any of its like-for-like competitors. The company have now launched a new programme to offset the remaining carbon produced by their fleet, head office and branches across the UK to combat global climate change.

Greenmotion has decided that the remaining, unavoidable carbon emissions will be offset to the Florestal Santa Maria project, a FSM-REDD project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by stopping deforestation in Brazil.

“The offsetting will work hand in hand with our efforts to reduce emissions,” comments Will Wynter, Franchisee Development Manager at Greenmotion. “As a company, we’ve set ourselves the goal of becoming the first rental company to be carbon neutral. We have already had our carbon footprint assessed and we’re pleased to be offsetting the cost of our emissions to a worthy cause in the Amazon rainforest.”

There are companies in the automotive sector that are already offsetting their emissions including Jaguar, Land Rover and Tusker. However, Greenmotion would be the first rental company to use this process in an effort to become carbon neutral.

Based on an assessment of the carbon emissions from the company’s fleet of over 3,500 vehicles, averaging 2,000 miles per month each, Greenmotion will pay close to £40,000 per year to offset on-road emissions. This will be added to with the cost of carbon used in their UK offices.

The company will be committing to the costs but will also give the opportunity to customers to donate towards the carbon cost of their own personal car rental. “Generally, our customers feel strongly about reducing emissions. That’s partly why they rent a vehicle from us. However, it isn’t always possible to completely nullify carbon emissions in travel so we’re giving our customers the option to offset the cost of the carbon generated by their journey,” explains Will.

Greenmotion, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, aims to offer customers value for money whilst helping to reduce the impact of global CO2 emissions associated with road travel. The company has environmentally friendly fleets across the UK and services 30 countries around the world.