Our planet urgently needs more and more projects initiated on sustainability to prevent the devastating consequences of global warming. However, the transition to a net-zero carbon life takes longer than expected, internal combustion engine vehicles stay with us for longer. So far no commercially viable solution has been made available to offset the carbon footprint of ageing corporate fleets. Combining vehicle fleet management with access to the voluntary carbon credit market, urbaniqe has created a better way to make fleets greener. In this article, we present how.
Why decarbonization of corporate vehicle fleets is urgently needed?
Over the past 120 years, human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, have led to a global average temperature increase of about 0.85°C. A 2°C increase in the Earth's average temperature would have unforeseeable and irreversible consequences, leading to severe natural disasters. That's why the achievement of carbon neutrality is crucial to prevent the negative consequences of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes that a safe threshold to be set is essential to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the 21st century.
To mitigate the risk of irreversible consequences of climate change, the EU has set the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 60% by 2030 and achieving full carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve the ambitious targets of the green agenda, effective actions taken by economic actors are necessary, from individuals and small organizations to the largest ones. Thus, environmental protection is becoming increasingly important for businesses, as a main pillar of their Environmental Social, and Government (ESG) policies.
Since transport and mobility contribute to more than 16% of overall CO2e emissions on a global scale, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) cannot avoid lowering or eventually offset the GHG emissions of their vehicle fleets as part of ESG compliance activities. However, business fleets are typically over 10 years old in most countries in Europe and still getting older. SMBs cannot afford to purchase vehicles with low or zero emissions in large numbers. As a consequence, the transition to a net-zero carbon life takes longer than expected, and ageing internal combustion engine vehicles stay with us for longer. This is the biggest problem in achieving green entrepreneurship.
What enterprises should do to become carbon neutral?
Carbon neutrality means net zero greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved when the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases emitted is equal to what is removed or stored in carbon sinks. Carbon neutrality can apply to a country, an industry, a company, a product, a service, an event, or even an activity, such as flying or an individual lifestyle.
There is no standard solution that can be universally applied to every business to answer the question of "how" to achieve ESG targets. For most organizations and individuals, it is not feasible to eliminate their emissions, so carbon neutrality often means the use of external greenhouse gas reduction projects and tools. This is also the case with ageing corporate vehicle fleets, which can somewhat reduce their carbon footprint with the use of innovative fleet management solutions, but it cannot be eliminated. Something more is needed to implement to decarbonize the entire carbon footprint.
How does urbaniqe help with offsetting the carbon footprint of corporate fleets?
Urbaniqe is a revolutionary mobile-first fleet management app designed for SMBs to help them to reduce fuel and maintenance expenses, and lower, eventually completely offset the carbon footprint of their ageing corporate fleets. In urbaniqe, businesses can reduce the carbon footprint of fossil-fueled vehicles in two ways:
a. quantitative impact: in urbaniqe business, decision-makers can monitor the real-time positions and replay the past tracks of their fleet to control their performance. In addition, they can separate business and private use reducing the excessive private over usage of company cars. This altogether may result in 10% less mileage, and proportionally less fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
b. qualitative impact: with the help of an artificial intelligence-based solution integrated into the urbaniqe app, the driving style of drivers is being continuously analyzed. As a result, drivers and decision-makers receive feedback in the form of automated reports on their driving style, average fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. This enables businesses to become more environmentally conscious and reduce consumption and thus harmful emissions by 5% respectively.
However, the two together can only eliminate approximately 15% of the carbon footprint in total in the case of internal combustion engine vehicles. Not bad, but we need more: complete offsetting!
Therefore, to enable enterprises to effortlessly offset the remaining CO2 emissions of refuels, urbaniqe provides them easy in-app access to the voluntary carbon credit market. In the application, customers can purchase voluntary carbon credits, and receive transparent carbon offset certificates in exchange. With that, they can not only comply with the strictest ESG requirements but create a green brand. The full decarbonization of refuels may take around 15% of the fuel expenses*. This means businesses can fully offset their vehicles’ carbon footprint and contribute to the sustainability of our planet and human life for “free” when using the realized savings on fuel expenses for investing in the green economy via carbon credits. This is why we strongly believe, that urbaniqe is a commercially viable solution for SMBs to become greener by uniquely combining fleet management with access to the carbon credit market.
*calculated with average prices of 93 €/ton of CO2e (EU ETS) and 1,6€/litre of gas.