Sharing Our Journey to net zero

 

Sharing our journey

We have started our social impact journey - our aspirations to drive change in our communities and have a positive impact on the environment. Our aim is to reach net zero in the next three to five years.

But it is important we do not do this in isolation. We are working with esteemed partners on this journey but as a team we are new to this, and are very aware that we will have successes and challenges along the way. We are confident that others will learn from both of these, so we intend to share as much as possible, particularly in the professional cycling world. So here we go…

CHANGING OUR VEHICLES FROM DIESEL TO ELECTRIC

Situation:

Professional cycle racing is fully supported by vehicles and we are definitely not the first to look to electric or hybrid vehicles for our team. Currently our team has:

  • Two Team Cars

  • A Mechanics Van

  • A Crew Cab Van

As a start of our journey, we wanted to move to fully hybrid or electric vehicles in the first 12 months - starting with the Tour of Britain 2022. This expectation is not realistic and we have moved more towards a 2 to 3 year vision.

Outcome:

  1. SUPPLY: We approached a number of car manufacturers. While there was interest in working with the Saint Piran team, we faced the same obstacles. Currently new vehicles being imported are in very short supply and are rightly going to customers that have paid for them. Therefore any chance of receiving a new lease of new hybrid vehicles was simply impossible - particularly for The Tour of Britain. Our van lease company outlined the severe delays in themselves getting hybrid vans with a long waiting list.

  2. PRACTICAL CHALLENGE: Replacing diesel vehicles with hybrid vehicles is a simple task in theory, and would be just as effective as a support race vehicle. However, a move to electric vehicles is simply not a viable position for professional cycling teams currently where a day’s mileage could be 250-400km, and the car will be in constant use for up to seven days. A short one day race remains possible, but as the cost of an electric vehicle remains so incredibly high, they remain out of reach for many UCI Continental teams. Again, we continue to monitor this situation.

Decision:

We were left with no choice but to continue using our current cars until we are able to move to a hybrid fleet, hopefully in 2023. We have replaced our inefficient mechanic’s van with a new version, with a cleaner engine and increased fuel efficiency.