Diva Leads Way In Driving Eco-Friendly

January 2007

An environmentally conscious Sheffield organisation is paving the way for its employees to contribute towards improving air quality in the city, whilst saving money on fuel for its company cars.

Full service marketing and communications agency, diva creative, is encouraging other businesses to follow their example and teach employees eco-driving techniques to help reduce the environmental impact of vehicle emissions whilst driving on company business.

diva staff recently took part in an eco–driving workshop, where they received driving tips and techniques that can be incorporated into any driving style and help to significantly reduce fuel costs by up to 30p a litre.

With fuel prices pushing towards £1 a litre, businesses that use company or fleet vehicles and do significant mileage could really save at the fuel pumps. Eco-driving is also easy for employees to implement, as it does not require any special training lessons or equipment.

Simple eco–driving techniques include:

• Changing gear at around 2000-2500 revs for modern petrol engines, or around 1500-2000 revs for modern diesel engines
• Accelerating and braking smoothly
• Anticipating traffic flow to avoid unnecessary gear changes
• Maintaining a steady speed whilst using the highest gear possible

diva has already developed a number of eco-driving resources for South Yorkshire air quality awareness campaign, Care4Air, including a special eco–driving podcast available to download for free from www.care4air.org

Amanda Pearce, diva Director said: “Through our work with the Care4Air campaign, it made perfect business and environmental sense for us to teach staff these simple eco-driving techniques, so that they can use them when out on company business, as well as when driving their own vehicle outside work.”

“As a business, we have already seen an improvement in our vehicles’ fuel economy, and would encourage other organisations to teach their employees about the benefits of making these simple changes to their driving style.”

Eco-driving schemes are already popular in other European countries, such as Holland, Austria and Switzerland, where major employers such as Canon have adopted these techniques for their vehicle fleets. On average, fleet drivers found they had reduce their fuel consumption by around 8%-13%, while road accidents amongst eco–drivers were reduced by 35%.*

Mark Daly, spokesperson for Care4Air, said; “We want to encourage all vehicle users, including individuals, organisations that have a fleet of cars, and driving schools, to adopt eco–driving techniques and enjoy the many benefits for them personally, as well as the wider environmental benefits. I would encourage any business interested in saving money on fuel to download our eco-driving podcast today.”

For more on how you can eco–drive, and to download the ‘A-to-B Efficiently’ podcast, please visit www.care4air.org