The UK Government provides tables for greenhouse gas emissions including generic figures for road vehicles. For example a rigid diesel goods vehicle of 7.5 to 17 tonnes has an indicative figure of 0.601 kg CO2e per km. You need to apply such generic figures with caution, though. I saw a report from a local council that used that particular number to back-calculate emissions from its refuse collection trucks. Leaving aside the fact that many of their vehicles are 26 tonners, they spend much of their time accelerating, braking to a halt, idling and running hydraulic accessories, with the result that one would expect them to do no better than about 4 mpg with emissions more like 1.8 kg CO2e per km, three times the council’s assumed value.

For the council in question that is not a trivial error. Even on their optimistic analysis domestic waste collection represents 33% of their total emissions. Properly calculated (ideally from actual fuel purchases) they will turn out to be more than all their other emissions taken together.

Further reading

• City of Westminster press release about end-of-lease vehicle conversions.
• This video from Royal Borough of Greenwich includes a driver’s opinion, making an interesting point about crew safety

Training

For sustainability professionals to make a real practical difference to carbon emissions they need a broad appreciation of technical energy-saving opportunities. To help them understand the potential more clearly I run a one-day course called ‘Energy Efficiency A to Z‘. Details of this can be found at http://vesma.com/training