Green Award for Stagecoach Group's North American Business
17 Feb 2012
- Environmental stewardship earns Green Highway Award
- Fleet and buildings initiatives cut carbon emissions
Stagecoach Group's North American business has won a prestigious award for its commitment to cutting carbon emissions.
Coach USA, one of the largest motorcoach transportation companies in North America, has received the United Motorcoach Association’s (UMA) Green Highway Award.
The award - established in 2008 and sponsored by Motor Coach Industries (MCI), the largest builder of inter-city coaches in the United States and Canada - recognises companies that demonstrate leadership in reducing carbon emissions.
Coach USA was honoured for a range of green achievements, including fuel saving measures, policies to cut engine idling, maintenance procedures, recycling programmes and facilities management.
The company is continuing to update its fleet with newer coaches featuring the latest clean-diesel engine technology. It is also testing new technologies that offer a 4% to 6% reduction in fuel usage.
Coach USA's fleet of more than 1,600 coaches and buses is also fitted with GPS systems that trigger alerts through the company’s control centre if engine idling times are exceeded.
Facilities have been upgraded with energy-saving lighting, while LED lights have been added at the company's parking lots. This has contributed to a 20% reduction in energy use.
Marketing communications via the company's website and other channels have also promoted the environmental advantage of the coach over the car. When filled to capacity, the company's coaches are on average seven times more energy-efficient than single-occupancy cars, releasing the least carbon dioxide per passenger mile compared to any other mode of transportation.
Coach USA also operates Stagecoach Group’s budget inter-city coach service, megabus.com, in North America where passenger numbers are up nearly 40% year on year.
In 2010, Stagecoach launched Revolution in the Way We Travel, a five-year plan to reduce further the carbon emissions from its transport operations in the UK and North America.
Stagecoach Group is targeting an overall reduction of 8% in carbon emissions from buildings and a cut of 3% in carbon emissions from annual fleet transport by April 2014. Specific stretching targets have been set for each of its bus and rail businesses, supported by an £11million green investment programme.
Coach USA has already exceeded its target to reduce carbon emissions by 15% within the first three years of the plan.
Dale Moser, President and Chief Operating Officer of Coach USA, said: "We're committed to improving our environmental practices even further and showing people that coach travel is a greener and more affordable alternative to car and air travel."
Patricia Ziska, MCI Vice President of Sales and Marketing, added: "The efforts of Coach USA and megabus.com benefit the entire industry and raise the profile of coach travel as the greenest way to go."
The Green Highway Award was presented at the UMA Motorcoach Expo 2012 in Long Beach, California, at a ceremony attended by motor coach company owners, operators and industry suppliers.
ENDS
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Megabus.com media resources
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Stagecoach Group
- Stagecoach Group (www.stagecoach.com) is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, United States and Canada. The company employs 35,000 people and operates bus, coach, rail, and tram services.
- Stagecoach is one of UK’s biggest bus and coach operators. Around 2.5 million passengers travel on Stagecoach's 8,000 buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The company's business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge.
- Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast inter-city rail franchise.
- Stagecoach also operates the Supertram network in Sheffield.
- In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,700 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. Budget coach service megabus.com links more than 70 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter and transit services, as well as tours, charters, sightseeing tours and a small number of school bus services. Visit www.coachusa.com for more information.