Climate Change
In North America we operate over 22,000 school buses and around 2,500 transit buses. As emissions per passenger kilometre are lower than for equivalent journeys by car, these vehicles help to reduce the impact of climate change. However, the vehicles also create emissions and we are committed to monitoring and cutting these as part of our Climate Change Strategy.
In North America our contractual environment differs from in the UK. In First Student we own the majority of our vehicles but in First Transit our customers own the vehicle fleet that we operate on their behalf. The way in which fuel is issued and paid for varies from contract to contract. In some cases vehicles are fuelled by our customers, in other cases by ourselves.
Over the last two years we have put considerable effort into establishing systems for monitoring fuel consumption. We now have two years' data for First Transit and First Student and can therefore calculate our associated carbon dioxide emissions. At present these figures do not take account of alternative fuels such as CNG. We continue to refine this data as part of our climate change programme and collate data at regional and site level. As passenger numbers are not recorded in North America we normalise data per kilometre, giving a measure of vehicle efficiency.
This year we emitted 418,545 tonnes of carbon dioxide from our vehicles, a reduction of 11,236 tonnes on last year. This is largely due to the fuel efficiency measures introduced by First Transit who have achieved a reduction in fuel efficiency of 7 grammes per kilometre.
In First Student we have moved to ultra low-sulphur diesel and in partnership with our clients we have introduced biodiesel to a small proportion of the fleet in both First Student and First Transit in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Illinois. Our current emissions calculations do not take account of reductions in emissions associated with the use of biodiesel. We will be looking to include this in future reports.