Manufacturers like Land Rover claim to offset the CO2 from so-called gas guzzlers. But is this just PR posturing – or a credible attempt to cancel out the damage from their cars’ greenhouse gases? These CO2 offset programmes are all to do with the much-talked about carbon footprint – the trail of unwanted carbon dioxide or CO2 emitted through the burning of fossil fuels.
Many car makers are signed-up – in one form or another – to do their bit to save the planet. Not only are they now producing new cars which are cleaner and more fuel efficient than ever before, they are collectively sinking billions of pounds into global projects which are designed specifically to help the environment.
What, in particular, can they do?
Well, we recently witnessed just one of the projects which are being run. Land Rover is sponsoring several worldwide programmes, the one we saw was in Uganda. The forests in that part of the world are vanishing at an alarming rate due to the high demand for charcoal to cook with. The majority of the population rely on wood and charcoal for cooking – electric and LPG cookers are way beyond the means of most Ugandans. It takes ten tonnes of lumber to produce just ten large sacks of charcoal. By giving the locals more efficient stoves should slow down the deforestation.
Stoves!?
It is a rather grandiose title for something which is nothing more than an old car wheel. The charcoal burns in the centre and the cooking pot stands on top of it.
So
are Land Rover handing out new Agas?
Not quite. Land Rover has taken a more pragmatic approach. By going into partnering with the Ugandan Stove Manufacturers Ltd in Kampala it is financially supporting this community project. They have developed a stove – roughly the same size as the old one – which now has an insulated combustion chamber that burns wood, as opposed to charcoal. It also retains heat for much longer and ultimately uses less fuel. At £3, it does cost three times the price of the old stove (the average household income is less than 50p per day), however, thanks to Land Rovers assistance they are being offered on an interest-free loan of £1 a month over three months. Plus, it also saves about £22 a year on charcoal.
This is all well and good, but how is it helping to offset carbon emissions?
Firstly, the forest, a known major contributor in absorbing CO2 gases, isn’t being felled at an incredible rate to feed the 1.13 tonnes of charcoal needed by each household, on an annual average basis. Also, each improved stove saves between 1.5 – 2 tonnes of CO2 – in the making and burning from charcoal – being emitted into the atmosphere. Currently the project sells 200 stoves per day and since the first phase, from 1 September 2005 to 31 December 2006, it has been responsible for the reduction of 8,732 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Two of these new stoves offset the use of a Discovery 3 TDV6 on a years basis.
Who’s paying for this, Land Rover or the customer?
Both. Land Rover reckon the manufacturing process emits about one tonne of CO2 per vehicle. The offset price per tonne is around £6. They have sold over 200,000 cars since the programme was introduced giving them an outlay of £600,000, so far. The average figure for UK customers is around £115 to offset the use of their vehicle for 45,000 miles, or 3-years – 50,000 cars have been sold here since the programme started in September 2006.