How do we compare to a regular garage? Where do we even start to work it out? Well we think working out our vehicle emissions would be a good start.

Sprinter Van
The our van doesn't have a government CO2 emission figure, we are using 30mpg (estimated from first measured fillup) to calculate 248g/km on standard diesel.

Fortwo CDI
Our CDI fortwo was registered just prior to the emissions based tax system, however had it have been registered 2months later, it would have been 89g/km. In the real world, we achieved 70mpg which according to this calculator is 106g/km on standard diesel.

Forfour
The forfour 1.1 is 135g/km according to the governments figures. We only achieved 45mpg average so we estimate 150g/km on petrol. One option is to convert the forfour to LPG this would achieve 95.31g/km (assuming economy equal). Flex-fuel conversion isn't really desirable in our eyes as the feedstock for bioethanol (only available in York from morrisons as e85) is not likely to be waste, and therefore contributing to the food vs fuel problem.

Over the next few months we will populate a spreadsheet with data to allow us to work out vehicle CO2 emissions. We are also going to work hard to alter our driving and bookings to minimise miles and fuel use.

Lower CO2 Fuels
Biodiesel (from waste) may help further reduce our emissions, however calculating this will be fairly hard so figures won't be 100% accurate. Biodiesel from fresh oil isn't carbon neutral, it can't be as it requires farming, harvesting, processing etc which is energy intensive (however, so is petro-diesel production!). However we feel biodiesel from a waste material (i.e. cooking oil) is a significant step in the right direction, okay it needs processing and requires an alcohol (which will probably be methanol) but quantities are around 15-20% of the total volume. Our ideal aim would be a re-used straight vegetable oil conversion. We know the Sprinter van and Smart CDI would run perfectly... watch this space!

We're working on replacing as many chemicals as we can with a more eco-friendly item. For starters we won't be buying any more hand cleaner, instead we'll be recycling coffee grounds, mixing our own hand cleaner (recipe still in experimental stage - but looking promising) using other natural cleaning agents. We have a good couple of months to perfect the recipe before we run out. All of our workwear will be washed with 'Bio D' eco friendly washing liquid from the new year.

Speed limits! We're going to limit our speed, initially limiting to 60 in order to try and reduce fuel consumption and reduce emissions. That means getting up earlier and allowing a little extra time to travel to customers, though if you work it out it'll only affect motorway miles, reducing speed slightly. I don't think I'll notice it.

-Sam.