“Also, CNG combusts 30-40% more efficiently as a usable energy than fossil fuel and, although its output is purely CO2, methane is 20 times worse as a greenhouse gas than CO2, so the only thing you can do is burn it: you can’t release it into the atmosphere.

“In effect, by using methane to power vehicles you are using a gas which will be burnt anyway for environmental reasons, but getting something out of it instead.”

He adds: “I would love to have access to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles but they will be too expensive at the start and the infrastructure may not be there.”

Parton believes that in the main the current choice of hybrid vehicles or range-extenders does not meet Archant’s requirements, although he has been “excited for some time” about the potential of plug-in hybrids.

However, Parton has been able to make use of other types of technology to significantly reduce the amount of fuel used by Archant’s 35 vans.

Three years ago the company, together with a number of other organisations and Norfolk County Council, looked at how to improve the environmental performance of commercial vehicle fleets.

“We had all our drivers go through a training module and fitted telematics to all our vans so we could check for speeding and ‘violent driving’ such as hard acceleration and braking,” Parton says.

“This has also allowed us to improve journey times and routes, and we have seen a 17% reduction in fuel use.”

Archant, which has its main printing facilities on the outskirts of Norwich, is one of the UK’s largest independently-owned regional media businesses.

It produces four daily regional newspapers and around 50 weekly titles, with a combined circulation of 1.7 million copies a week. It also produces around 80 magazines and 200 websites and digital products.

Parton says Archant’s involvement in its local communities means its focus on green issues is genuine: there is no element of seeking positive PR here.

“It is substance over style,” he says. “We are not trying to be fashionable; we are genuinely honest about what we are trying to do.

“Our chief executive, Adrian Jeakings, very much believes in business, but sustainable business.

“A couple of years ago, he said that no matter what your views on climate change were, taking more from the planet than we put back in is not sustainable.

“To me, that encompasses the issue beautifully because we have to use the most effective ways to do the minimum of miles and then drive those miles as well as we can.”