Environment

In 2008 Arriva set itself a challenge of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions footprint by 15 per cent, like-for-like, from the 2006 level, by 2012.

The main focus in addressing this challenge is addressing the emissions from vehicle fuel, which was responsible for 94.6 per cent of our greenhouse gas footprint in 2008. In addition, programmes are being implemented to improve the carbon-efficiency of our depots and other facilities.

We are adopting a twin-pronged approach in reducing the impact of transport fuel. We are using technology and training to help bus and train drivers to improve fuel consumption, and increasing our use of alternative fuels which have a lower carbon impact than traditional diesel. In order to deliver the overall reduction, these measures have to offset the increased fuel consumption of newer buses and trains, which has been a side effect of improving local air quality, and increased vehicle weights resulting from enhanced passenger comfort and safety. For example, we estimate new buses introduced in the UK increased fuel consumption in 2008 by 1,456,000 litres, representing 3,892 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2E).

Arriva’s greenhouse gas target was set against the background of European Union aims to have biofuels make up 10 per cent of transport fuel by 2020 with some countries aiming for even higher use. Since Arriva published its targets the debate regarding the sustainability of biofuels has intensified and a further EU review is currently underway. Clarity on the policy approach regarding the viability and sustainability of various alternative fuels would assist in the longer-term planning of greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

In 2008 the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to Arriva’s business operations amounted to 1,488,878 tonnes CO₂E, an increase in absolute terms of 438,880 tonnes CO₂E on 2007. This increase reflects the significant additional services run by Arriva during 2008, particularly a full year of operations for the CrossCountry rail franchise in the UK and new bus businesses acquired in the UK, Spain, Hungary and Slovakia.

One of the challenges of reporting greenhouse gas emissions is finding a consistently workable means of 'normalising' the absolute figure for emissions, i.e. enabling stakeholders to compare changes in the absolute CO2E figure against changes in the overall scale of the business. The chart, left, shows Arriva’s greenhouse gas footprint normalised against group revenue for the past three years. In order to strip out the effects of inflation, which tend to flatter the rate of progress, the right-hand bar for each reported year depicts a ‘real terms’ comparison, with greenhouse gas emissions divided by group revenue adjusted by changes in the sterling retail price index.

For the last three years Arriva has submitted returns to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) - an independent not-for-profit organisation which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. Arriva’s CDP returns are available at www.cdproject.net.

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Given the finite and diminishing reserves of fossil oil, Arriva has a keen interest in vehicle propulsion systems which may power our buses and trains in a post-diesel age. Different propulsion systems may well be suited to different geographical regions and political environments. For instance, in places with abundant renewable electric power from hydroelectric schemes, geothermal wind or wave power, electric propulsion will be high on the agenda. Ethanol derived from wood cellulose is only likely to be appropriate in heavily forested regions where the raw material is both accessible and renewable.

Manufacturers of buses propelled by hybrid diesel / electric motors estimate fuel savings of 30 per cent with a resultant reduction in CO₂ emissions in comparison to a bus powered by fossil diesel.

While the technology and economics of diesel / electric hybrid propulsion are yet to be fully proven, Arriva has been active in trials of the first hybrid double decker in London. This prototype has covered 10,000 miles providing a valuable learning ground for the technology. Five second generation series hybrid vehicles which followed began service with Arriva London in February 2009.

In addition six new buses equipped with a parallel hybrid system, where both the diesel and electric motors can directly drive the transmission, are being introduced to the Arriva London fleet from March 2009.

Further experience of hybrid technology has been gained from our trial on park-and-ride services in West Sussex and in Copenhagen where in 2008 we were awarded a contract to operate a fleet of 11 electric buses in the city centre.

Arriva has gained a wide range of experience in the application of biofuels in differing operating environments with varied climatic and network conditions. The adoption of biofuels has supported public policy objectives of regional, national and international institutions which in some countries include commercial incentives to adopt alternative fuels. A significant increase in the deployment of biofuels would be dependent on consistently supportive public policy regimes.

In Germany, Arriva has experience of running modern trains with 100 per cent biodiesel dating back to 2004. In the Berlin area the conversion of 25 trains to run on B100 biodiesel has delivered an annual saving of 5,900 tonnes of CO₂, while at our operation in north eastern Germany 32 trains running on B100 biodiesel deliver an annual saving of 9,300 tonnes of CO₂ compared to mineral diesel.

In the UK, the diesel we use to run our bus fleet has a five per cent biofuel content and in Portugal we have 240 buses running on B30 biodiesel, a blend of 30 per cent biofuel and 70 per cent mineral diesel. We are also increasing our use of biofuel for buses in Germany where more than two-thirds of our bus fuel is now B100.

In southern Sweden, Arriva is using bio-gas produced by a landfill facility next to our Helsingborg depot to fuel a fleet of 61 buses, thereby reducing the impact on fossil oil reserves. In Dordrecht, in the Netherlands, Arriva is set to introduce buses fuelled by bio-methane gas generated from sewage waste.

In March 2009 Arriva introduced 43 new buses fuelled by E95 bio-ethanol, derived from sugar cane, other crops and waste wood cellulose, to our fleet in Stockholm.

The use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquid propane gas (LPG) reduce the carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, particulates and hydrocarbons emissions significantly, compared to diesel-powered buses. In Scandinavia, Arriva is using CNG and LPG in various urban operating areas, while in Trutnov in the Czech Republic our Osnado business is operating buses fuelled by CNG.

In Italy, Arriva continues to deploy an emulsified diesel with 10 per cent water content, where engine technology permits, on older vehicles. This reduces particulate emissions by over 50 per cent, nitrogen oxides by five to six per cent, and carbon monoxide by over 30 per cent. Improving the emissions of older vehicles is important due to the long life of buses compared to cars. Their longer lifespan makes good use of the energy, materials and other natural resources used in construction.

In the Dutch region of Groningen / Drenthe Arriva introduced 10 buses to operate on the busiest routes in Groningen fuelled on gas produced from domestic waste, while in the Friesland / Leeuwarden region Arriva has 23 buses running on CNG.

The way buses and trains are driven has a big impact on fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

Over the last 18 months Arriva has developed a bespoke system known as Eco-manager which, combined with driver training, is helping our drivers to improve fuel efficiency. Passenger research also points to improved customer satisfaction as a result of smoother acceleration and braking. The system includes a real time display to prompt the driving techniques covered in the training.

The system’s ‘black box’ produces detailed reports enabling comparison between different vehicles on the same route, different driving styles in the same vehicle and a particular vehicle type’s performance on different routes.

Training begins with a video presentation and a coaching session to become familiar with the system. Each month the record for each driver shows their performance against the depot average and the best performing driver. Eco-trainers are available to give individual training for those who need the most support.

During 2008 the trial was widened to 500 vehicles, and indicated an overall fuel saving of 12 per cent. Based on this, and an assumption of fuel economy improvements of five to 10 per cent in normal operating conditions, Arriva has committed to roll out the system and training across its UK regional bus operations. While being installed in all driver-training vehicles in the UK, Eco-manager is being fitted to all our new buses in the UK and retro-fitted to a further 1,400 buses during 2009. In all, more than 2,000 of our UK vehicles are set to have Eco-manager by the end of 2009.

Equivalent technology is in use on Arriva trains in Bavaria, and at our TST bus business in Portugal we are extending the use of an alternative system developed with industrial and academic partners which has delivered benefits in part of the fleet.

Many other fuel saving and emissions-control initiatives are being built into good engineering, servicing and operational practice. Even those with modest effects can help the big picture.

Arriva’s investment in new vehicles continues to increase the proportion of buses and trains which meet the more recent environmental standards. Since 1992 the European Union has introduced a series of emission standards setting the permitted levels of exhaust pollutants for new vehicles. The maximum limits for carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and particulate matter emissions defined in the standards from Euro I in 1992 through to Euro V in 2008 have become progressively lower with each phase of the standard.

Vehicle by engine type (%)

	Bus		Train
	2008	2007	2008	2007
Euro I	11.4	13.6	0.3	0.4
Euro II	34.6	36.1	55.3	64.3
Euro III	29.6	31.3	6.1	3.4
Euro IV	8.8	4.0	4.5	5.0
Euro V	1.8	1.8	-	-
EEV	2.5	1.4	0.9	-
Non Euro class	8.4	9.3	25.5	26.0
Other	2.9	2.5	7.4	0.9

Mileage split by engine type (%)

	Bus		Train
	2008	2007	2008	2007
Euro I	11.6	14.6	0.1	0.3
Euro II	33.3	35.5	72.2	53.9
Euro III	35.7	36.6	4.2	6.5
Euro IV	7.0	2.7	0.1	4.4
Euro V	1.4	0.7	2.9	-
EEV	2.1	0.4	0.1	-
Non Euro class	6.1	7.6	18.0	33.4
Other	2.8	1.9	2.4	1.5

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Fuel consumption plays a significant part in the selection of the makes and models of new buses we select. The range of fuel performance can be more than 20 per cent between similar models. We continue to work with vehicle manufacturers to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel consumption where possible. However, sometimes this is offset by other factors. For example, the Euro VI emissions standard, due for introduction in 2014, will further improve urban air quality, but may in itself increase fuel consumption.

The majority of waste handled by our businesses is that left by passengers on our trains and buses. Across the group we employ waste contractors whose operations include waste separation, recycling and energy generation from waste.

Arriva employees have embraced recycling policies at the group head office, and many other locations across the group, and are separating most types of general waste from office environments for recycling.

The CO₂ from vehicle fuel may be the largest part of Arriva’s environmental impact but we also work hard to minimise other impacts.

One of Arriva’s Italian companies, SAF, put environmental considerations to the forefront in the design of its new head office in Udine. A photovoltaic plant has been included to harness solar energy, and vehicle washing equipment that recycles water.

Wind turbines were commissioned at the Arriva Trains Wales Machynlleth depot and TST’s Moita depot in Portugal during 2008. The turbine at Machynlleth runs alongside solar-powered domestic water heating, energy efficient lighting, and rainwater harvesting systems.

The new headquarters for our CrossCountry rail franchise in the UK is equipped with energy-saving equipment including motion-sensitive lighting, waste segregation and recycling arrangements, and water-efficient toilets.

In London, a comprehensive energy management and monitoring programme saw Arriva put time clocks on all heating systems, replacing failing oil boilers with condensing boilers, reducing long flow and return pipework, and using smaller water heating units in summer. This produced an eight per cent reduction in gas consumption within Arriva London in 2008 compared to 2007.

A combination of water reclamation units, leak reduction, auto shut-off taps and toilet flush management systems has resulted in a 21 per cent reduction in water consumption in 2008 in Arriva London.

In order to make a year-on-year comparison of water and energy consumption within Arriva’s businesses the annual totals are averaged across the number of vehicles operated.

Water consumption average per vehicle (cubic metres)

	2008	2007
Bus	66	69
Rail	305	500
Group	88	88

Energy consumption average per vehicle (kilowatt hours)

	2008	2007
Bus	10,740	10,735
Rail	30,489	63,380
Group	12,614	13,035