Stagecoach Group is leading the way in delivering greener, smarter bus and rail services and sustainability is at the heart of our business.

Climate change is one of the most serious challenges facing our world. The personal lifestyle choices we make every day affect the planet we will leave to future generations. Our customers and other stakeholders tell us the environment is a key issue for them – and they want us to help them reduce their carbon footprint.

Who are we?

Stagecoach runs a fleet of around 8,100 buses, which connect communities in approximately 100 towns and cities in the UK. Two million passengers travel on Stagecoach bus services every day, on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Our business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge.

We also operate a wide range of coach services across the UK. Our market-leading budget coach operator megabus.com links more than 60 towns and cities in the UK, with fares from just £1.

Stagecoach is also involved in running a quarter of all passenger rail networks in the UK. The Group operates the South Western and East Midlands rail franchises. Our rail business also includes our joint venture, Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.

In addition, Stagecoach is Britain’s biggest tram operator, with contracts to operate Stagecoach Supertram in Sheffield and Stagecoach Metrolink in Manchester.

What are we doing?

Our strategy to meet the challenge of climate change centres on the steps we can take as a business, the ways in which our individual employees can incrementally help to deliver change and what we can do to support our customers in leading more sustainable lifestyles.

We are focused on:

• meeting and exceeding our regulatory obligations
• investing in more fuel-efficient vehicles
• using alternative, renewable fuels
• training our people in more efficient driving techniques
• saving energy at our offices and depots
• conserving and recycling water
• reducing and recycling waste
• reducing business travel
• affordable bus and rail travel
• developing green travel plans and incentives for our people, customers and other organisations.

Carbon Management Programme (CMP)

Stagecoach Group, in partnership with Inenco - a consultancy specialising in energy management, sustainability and environmental services – launched a Carbon Management Programme (CMP) in December 2008. The CMP will ensure that we meet our regulatory obligations, reduces our carbon emissions and cut energy costs.

Stagecoach has launched a detailed sustainability strategy and we are investing £11million in a range of measures to meet our environmental targets. The Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in buildings CO₂ emissions and a cut of 3% in annual fleet transport CO₂e emissions by 2014. It follows a reduction in the carbon intensity of our UK businesses of 5.7% in the three years to 30 April 2009.

It is estimated the five-year programme, from 2009-10 to 2013-14, will save a total of nearly 150,000 tonnes of CO₂e, with the Group’s annual emissions reduced by around 40,000 tonnes CO₂e by April 2014.

What have we achieved so far?

Last year, Stagecoach Group was awarded the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change by measuring and reducing our carbon emissions. We are the first Scottish-based transport group - and one of only two listed UK public transport operators - to have achieved the stretching carbon reduction benchmark which covers all of our bus and rail operations in the UK.

Prior to launching our sustainability strategy, we had already managed to reduce the carbon intensity of our UK businesses by 5.7% in the three years to 30 April 2009 as a result of a package of measures designed to make our business more sustainable.

Further UK Bus highlights and achievements to date have included:

VEHICLES:

• Reducing CO2 emissions from the Group’s bus fleet in the UK by more than 100,000 tonnes over the past five years through use of an innovative fuel additive.
• Investing millions of pounds each year in the training of its bus driving team which includes its Safe, Skilled and Fuel Efficient Driving programme. We also recently announced a multi-million-pound investment in a hi-tech eco-driving system, by Green Road, which is expected to reduce fuel consumption by 4%.
• Leading the UK with the introduction of 142 green hybrid electric buses, which produce 30% less carbon emissions than standard vehicles.
• Launching the UK’s first Bio-buses which run on 100% bio-fuel made from used cooking oil and other food industry by-products, all of which are from sustainable sources. The project also allows customers to exchange their used cooking oil for discounted bus travel, providing them with an incentive to recycle and to use public transport.

BUILDINGS

• Cutting annual heating energy consumption at the UK Bus division by around 35% in the past three years following the introduction of a hi-tech energy management system at more than 100 sites in Scotland, England and Wales.
• The introduction of an ‘intelligent’ lighting system – which uses movement sensors to determine the amount of light required - at UK Bus depots. This could produce an annual saving of more than 373,000kilowatts per hour (KWh) and save almost 230 tonnes of CO₂ over the course of a year.

STAFF

• Engaging employees, customers and local communities through an annual Group-wide Green Week event on the environmental benefits of using public transport, and ways they can reduce their own carbon footprint.
• Issuing bus drivers across the UK with fleece jackets made from recycled plastic bottles – a project which could save around 350,000 plastic bottles being disposed of in landfill sites*.

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

• Working with other major transport groups in the UK to encourage the government and other policy makers to put buses and coaches at the heart of measures to tackle climate change. The Greener Journeys campaign (www.greener-journeys.com) has launched the One Billion Challenge.
• Launching Scotland’s first reverse vending recycling initiative in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council, offering discounted bus travel in return for used drinks cans and bottles. The hi-tech reverse vending recycling machine uses advanced barcode technology to identify, sort, collect and recycle steel and aluminium drinks cans as well as plastic drinks bottles. Consumers receive a Stagecoach green point for every item recycled, which they can redeem for discounted bus travel.
• Partnering with a number of major employers to support more sustainable travel choices. The green travel plan involves employees signing up to annual bus travel and paying for it directly from their salary. Stagecoach is also working with the Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s Universities Hospitals NHS Trust to offer staff discounted bus ticketing to encourage more use of public transport.

Awards

Stagecoach has also won a number of awards in the past two years for its environmental initiatives. The company was named Best Green Travel Provider at the inaugural 2009 Scottish Green Awards and in 2010 won the Travel and Transport Award at the Green Business Awards.

*Statistics from EXCELASSOC CO., LTD.