Europcar Car Rental – Company History

Europcar’s Commitment to the Environment

Europcar is deeply committed to the environment and to sustainability and prides itself on being the industry leader in this field. Our employees are involved deeply in the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives which will lead to an ongoing sustainable culture.

Greenfleet Offset Program

In recognition of the importance in reducing carbon emissions, Europcar Australia launched its carbon offset program in December 2006. We have partnered with Greenfleet, a non profit organisation to offset the carbon emissions of new vehicles that are added to the fleet. The goal is to raise $250,000 each year leading to the planting of over 100,000 trees covering 100 hectares of degraded land being planted.

How it works:

Greenfleet has calculated that to offset the carbon emissions for a vehicle for 1 year, 17 native trees need to be planted. These trees will help to create a forest, and as they grow will absorb the greenhouse gases that the car produces in one year (based on 4.3 tonnes of CO2 for the average car).

Science shows that 17 mixed species trees will not only absorb a car’s greenhouse emissions, but will also help to tackle salinity, improve water quality and provide essential habitat for native species.

Who is Greenfleet?

Greenfleet was launched as a project in 1997, and subsequently Greenfleet Australia was established in 2001 as a not for profit environmental organisation.

Greenfleet specialises in reducing the environmental impacts of transport by:

• Planting native trees to offset current CO2 emissions.
• Promoting fuel-efficient technologies and low carbon fuels in order to reduce emissions in the future.

Greenfleet is the first not-for-profit forestry offset organisation to become an Approved Abatement Provider under the Federal Government’s Greenhouse Friendly™ initiative.

2007 tree planting

The first Europcar tree planting was undertaken in December 2007 at Somerset Dam in Queensland. This site is Crown Land managed by South East Queensland Water. Over time it has been heavily degraded from poor grazing practices and over-stocking. Thanks to the support of Europcar, it has now been revegetated with 13 different species of trees which are native to the area, including Soap Tree, Hoop Pine, Lemon-scented Gum, Moreton Bay Ash, Grey Box, Forest Red Gum, Crows Ash, Yellowwood, Brush Box and Turpentine Tree. The aim is to create a permanent forest to assist soil and water conservation, build biodiversity, and of course, to store carbon.

The area is an important habitat for koalas, and the new forest will help them move around the area more easily. By adding to other corridors it will also encourage general movement of local birdlife, Eastern Greys and other small marsupials.

2008 tree planting

In September 2008, another 34,553 trees were planted on a 726 ha site near Wedderburn, about 200km north-west of Melbourne. This site links Mount Korong Reserve with the nearby Rocky Ranges and all the new trees were native to the area.

The planting will help increase the population of three endangered vegetation species including Deane’s Wattle, which is thought to have the largest population at Mt Korong,” The site was direct seeded, which usually results in healthier plants with stronger and deeper root systems. The method of direct seeding means trees have not been transplanted so there is no disturbance to root growth, this enables plants to be more tolerant of stressful conditions such as pest attack and drought.”

What can you do?

You can offset the carbon emissions from your car rental with a $3 donation (fully tax deductible) every time you rent. Help Europcar with its goal of offsetting the carbon emissions of its fleet

We would like our customers to consider following our lead and signing up their own cars to the Greenfleet program and offsetting their carbon emissions.

Other steps

Europcar recognises it is important not only to offset emissions but to reduce them and has put in place a number of other actions to reduce the carbon emissions. This includes:

• The addition of hybrid vehicles (such as the Toyota Prius) to the fleet
• Increasing the number of diesel fuelled vehicles on fleet
• Publishing the emissions ratings on all vehicles so customers can actively choose vehicles with lower emissions

We want to involve our customers in Europcar’s sustainability initiatives- this includes education on how they can reduce their environmental impact when renting vehicles as well as their own private vehicles

Europcar International

Globally Europcar is committed to the environment, with Europcar International the first car rental company to receive Bureau Veritas Certification for its Environmental Charter