“We’ve been working with the Energy Saving Trust since we did a Green Fleet Review in 2008,” Lambe says. “It has been helpful in getting us to where we are today.”

A project team was formed with the EST to examine green transport initiatives. One of the measures was emissions caps.

A limit of 160g/km of CO2 was introduced in July 2009, which will reduce by 10g/km every subsequent July until a target of 130g/km in 2012 is reached.

As well as emissions caps, financial incentives have been introduced to encourage employees to choose more efficient vehicles.

If an employee downsizes to a smaller vehicle they are paid the difference in the cost between their entitlement and the car they choose.

They also receive a ‘green bonus’ of £500 if they choose a vehicle below a certain emissions level (currently 130g/km for senior grades and 115g/km for all other grades). And they are awarded an extra £10 for every gram below that threshold.

The green bonus trigger points will be reduced in line with the emissions cap.

In July they drop to 120g/km for senior grades and 110g/km for others; next year they will fall to 110g/km and 100g/km.

Currently, a senior grade driver who chooses a Toyota Prius with emissions of 89g/km would receive a bonus of £910.

The generous bonus scheme – Willmott Dixon paid out £89,589 in green bonsues in 2009 has meant there has been little resistance from drivers about the emissions limits and mileage capture system. It has now been extended to cash allowance drivers.

However, Willmott Dixon’s business directors initially “reacted fiercely” to the mileage caps.

“They understand our carbon agenda,” Lambe says. “The issue was whether mileage caps were the most appropriate method.

“We don’t put measures in place without proper consideration and we wanted to be sure that we had the right things in place to influence travel patterns.”

After months of discussions agreement was reached.

“We decided that we needed to have a penal system,” Lambe says.

“You’ve got to have the stick as well as the carrot.”

Willmott Dixon is also encouraging the use of teleconferencing to cut business travel and emissions and is currently working on a car sharing scheme.

A Bike4Work scheme has already been introduced, providing a subsidised way of purchasing a bike for business use. More than 100 employees have taken advantage of this scheme.

Lambe is now considering whether to allow businesses to mitigate the mileage penalties in future.

For instance, if a driver exceeded 25,000 miles but the vehicle’s average emissions were well below a set threshold then the business division might have their penalty reduced.

Keeping track of CO2

As part of its commitment to become carbon neutral by 2012, Willmott Dixon has set annual target average
emissions for the fleet.

Monthly reports are produced to measure the company’s progress.

The fleet is already ahead of its July 2011 target of 140g/km of CO2 and the composition of the fleet is rapidly altering.

Low CO2 emitting vehicles (sub-140g/km) made up less than 30% of Willmott Dixon’s fleet in 2008, but by November 2010 this had risen to 60% of the fleet.

The fleet’s emissions have been benchmarked against other companies and compare favourably.

Sharing ideas with rivals

Willmott Dixon has been sharing its experiences of mileage and emissions management through the Strategic Forum for
Construction, which has representatives from all parts of the industry and meets on a quarterly basis.

A transport and business travel group (a sub-group of the Forum’s carbon action group) was formed last autumn with the aim of developing a set of recommendations for driving down emissions.

Willmott Dixon’s policies have played a key part in developing the recommendations, which are due to be published soon.

The next step is look at how construction companies can imbed these policies.