Six months ago, we made the decision to switch all our diesel powered auxiliary equipment from Red Diesel to Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) with fantastic success.
Red Diesel has been used within the construction industry for decades and has a huge detrimental impact on the planet with massive environmental pollutants. In the 2020 budget, the UK Government confirmed a previous announcement that the exemption allowing the use of rebated (red) diesel would be removed from 01st April 2022. Trade associations have lobbied hard attempting to maintain the reduction in cost claiming that white diesel was the only alternative.
At QMS we decided to embrace the decision and pro-actively investigated substitutes which would reduce our impact on the planet for the future benefit of mankind. We carried out detailed investigations and significant testing into the use of alternative fuels and from 01st September 2021 completely eliminated the use of red diesel from our business activities.
Greg Clark, Managing Director said, “Caring for the environment has been at the very heart of QMS since Ralph and I set the company up in 2001. In 2006 we launched our HyperLine™ road marking rejuvenation system which combines high retro-reflective performance with 81% reduction in CO₂ impact. The decision to remove red diesel and power auxiliary equipment using HVO is the next stage in our journey to becoming carbon neutral”.
Since switching to 100% HVO in September 2021, we have used 4,770 litres of fuel to power our auxiliary equipment. Through our evaluation we knew that this move to HVO would increase our fuel bills, however we believe this is a worthwhile sacrifice considering the environmental benefits and the long-term protection of our planet.
Red Diesel has an environmental impact of 3.16kg CO₂e per litre whereas HVO is significantly lower with only 0.34kg – a massive reduction of 2.82kg CO₂e per litre! This calculates to a reduction of 13.45 tonnes of CO₂e in just six months which is an amazing 89.2% saving.
Natasha Cummings, IMS (Integrated Management Systems) Manager said, “At QMS, we do not want to simply ‘off-set’ our CO₂ impact on the planet. First and foremost we are committed to removing environmental pollutants from the outset and then significantly reducing where we cannot eliminate. The switch to HVO has certainly helped us on our way to this achievement”.
Put in simple terms, had the past six months’ fuel usage been with red diesel, it would have generated 15.07 tonnes of CO₂ and required 692 fully grown tress to absorb. Having switched to HVO, we have reduced the impact to only 1.62 tonnes needing just 74 trees!
We are on a journey and our next step is to ensure that our auxiliary equipment will be 100% carbon neutral within 12 months. We shall continue to minimise and remove CO₂ impact wherever possible and off-set the balance to achieve our vision.
(Original Source: https://www.qmarkings.co.uk/news/detail/hvo-fuel-switch-six-months-on)
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