Head of government's environmental transport policy urges businesses to enrol employees on subsidised eco-driving courses

The head of environmental transport policy at the Department for Transport (DfT) has criticised the apparent lack of corporate interest in a government-backed scheme encouraging people to drive in an environmentally friendly manner.

Back in 2008 the government launched a scheme offering businesses heavily subsidised eco-driving lessons for their staff.

But speaking at an eco-driving event hosted by Fiat last week, Rupert Furness, head of environment policy and delivery at the Department for Transport (DfT), said he is "constantly frustrated" by the difficulty in getting businesses to sign up to the smarter driving training scheme.

He said the DfT has set aside about £450,000 this year to subsidise the lessons, which are delivered through the Energy Savings Trust and aim to teach drivers environmentally friendly techniques such as smooth accelerating and turning off the engine when stuck in traffic.

"The results are always very encouraging, but the difficulty is actually getting people to want to take them up, even heavily subsidised," he said. "It's one of those constant frustrations, and it remains a challenge. The benefits are so obvious, so why is it so difficult to get people to change their behaviour?"

The Energy Saving Trust said that in the last financial year it sold just 7,000 places on smarter driving courses against a target of 26,000.

"There's no question we're a little disappointed with take up of our smarter driving training, especially given that with the subsidy it only costs companies £15 per person," said Bob Saynor, smarter driving programme manager for the Energy Saving Trust. "In a survey of around 150 organisations, absolutely all of them said they found the driving techniques learned practical and useful."

Advocates of eco-driving argue that firms can save substantial amounts of fuel, cut carbon emissions and reduce wear and tear on vehicles by embracing greener driving techniques.

A study released by Fiat this week estimated that if everyone in the European Union took up eco-driving, Europe could avoid CO2 emissions equivalent to 50 per cent of Portugal's annual carbon footprint.

Commenting on those findings, Furness predicted that a massive increase in eco-driving would deliver similar carbon savings to some of the UK's renewable energy plans, but at a significantly lower cost.

"Theoretically, you could get the same level of carbon savings as our entire biofuel policies, for example, which are expensive and raise all sorts of other complex issues," he observed.

In addition to the smart driving courses, Furness said the DfT has introduced some eco-driving elements into the new driving test, though not as pass or fail criteria.

However, in a comment that suggested the government would not enforce eco-driving as legislation, he said it should be incorporated into David Cameron's "Big Society" strategy.

"These energetic, fun ways of making people want to do it themselves fits very well with the government's other themes about government not always having to provide the solutions and make people do things," he said.

businessgreen.com