TIMES – The search for Green van hire.

26th January 2008

Q. Do you know any companies that rent green vans?

A. Tricky, this one. Unlike car manufacturers, van manufacturers are not required to publish CO2 figures for their models so it's not easy comparing them and working out which ones are green. One company that has extracted some of this emission information from the motoring industry and used it to operate an eco-friendly car and van hire company is Green Motion (greenmotion.co.uk).

Mercedes and Volkswagen have declined to give CO2 emissions for their vans, says Richard Lowden, the managing director of Green Motion, but Ford, Renault and Citroën have been transparent. From these figures Lowden found that two Citroën models, the Citroën C2 Enterprise (113g/km CO2 ) and Citroën Nemo (119g/km CO2), came out top. Green Motion set up shop four months ago and so far there are only three bases, in Oxford, Palmers Green, in North London, and Milton Keynes. There are grand plans to spread to 11 more locations this year.

Go Green, based in Cheshire, is another car and van rental company to take its environmental commitment seriously.

While there is nothing particularly pea-green about its vans, it invests 1 per cent of its annual profits in environmental education projects in the local area, a means of offsetting its emissions.

Despite advances in biodiesel technology, progress has been slow to turn vans green, with most still guzzling unwholesome quantities of diesel. There are simply not sufficient provisions to include biofuel vans in a rental business, according to Lowden. "It's an empty gesture; there are only 14 filling stations that sell biodiesel in the UK."

This makes the story of the two men from Dorset who returned earlier this month from a 2,600-mile trip to Timbuktu, in a lorry that ran on waste chocolate, all the more commendable.

Sadly, it will be some time before you see choc-powered vans at your local Hertz branch.

The above story was written by Anna Shepard - the Eco Warrior of the Times newspaper and appeared in the Saturday 26th January publication (Body and Soul).

Citroen C2 Enterprise Van featured at Green Motion’s rental operation in Oxford

Eco Warrior Anna Shepard from The Times newspaper

For further information on hiring green vans please call Green Motion’s Central Reservations department on 033 888 4000.

Links

The Times newspaper

Photography

Citroen C2 – www.professional-images.co.uk
Anna Shepard – www.davidhigham.co.uk

Citroen – www.citroen.co.uk