Avis supports the environment

In a few years young children at Thuthuka Primary School in Tembisa will be able to play in the shade of 75 indigenous trees. The trees were planted by Avis Rent a Car Southern Africa’s staff as part of the car rental company’s “Avis Cares” initiative, which focuses on people and environmental issues. The initiative is also part of Avis’ promise to plant
a tree for every Toyota Prius rented through Avis since its launch last year.

This is part of an initiative that includes 225 trees to be planted at underprivileged schools and communities and was conducted in conjunction with one of Avis’ developmental partners, Food and Trees for Africa. They are a public greening initiative that help establish sustainable natural resources that provide food security for poverty-stricken
people and contributes to the greening of marginalised communities.

Avis Rent a Car Southern Africa MD, Wayne Duvenage, says the initiative was aimed at providing customers with the opportunity to rent the new Toyota Prius, an environmentally friendly vehicle, and make their rental experience one of minimal environmental impact. “In addition to introducing low emission cars, the Avis Cares brand focuses on improved recycling, investing in community upliftment, internal training and development, and procurement through suppliers
made up of previously disadvantaged individuals,” he says.

Tree Planting Initiative – Barons Western Cape

Barons Western Cape have committed to planting an indigenous tree for every vehicle sold. The joint venture sees
the dealership teaming up with the City Parks Department and the Office of the Mayor of Cape Town.

Executive mayor, Helen Zille, said: “On behalf of the City of Cape Town I offer my full support to the Barons ‘Trees for Cars’ Initiative. Air pollution is becoming a serious problem for our environment and the health of our residents. Last year the City experienced over 150 days where air pollution levels were higher than internationally accepted standards. Barons has chosen to plant a tree for every car that they sell in order to help counterbalance the carbon emissions that cars produce and so give their customers the opportunity to help make Cape Town a healthier city.”

Healthy machines – healthy environment

Cat clean air technology

ACERT technology enables diesel engines to comply with legislated restrictions of harmful emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), particulate matter (PM) and oxides of
nitrogen (NOx).

However, durability, longevity and ease of maintenance are also proven features of Caterpillar’s engines with ACERT technology. A single-technology solution meets emissions requirements and customer needs in both on-highway and off-road markets. This reduces complexity and allows Barloworld Equipment to provide excellent levels of product support with high parts commonality, ease of training for technicians and minimal additional tooling.

Carbon offset programme
The Avis and Budget operations in Norway have as part of upholding their environmental certification ISO 14001, and as part of being a socially responsible entity, undertaken to be carbon neutral in terms of the carbon emission from their operations, with the exclusion of emissions from their rental fleet and licensee operations. The guiding principles of carbon neutrality as detailed in the Kyoto Protocol have been applied.

This has been achieved by the company entering into a partnership with a Norwegian based company called CO2focus AS. On an annual basis the company in conjunction with this partner calculates the carbon footprint of the company based on the following areas:

• Emissions from company vehicles
  
• Emissions from electric heating
  
• Emissions from travel by air
  
• Emissions from the production and management of general waste
  
• Emissions from the utilisation of paper products

The company’s partner will calculate the carbon footprint and audit this, providing the company with a total amount of carbon based emissions. The company will then purchase an equivalent amount of carbon credits (CER as detailed below) from a United Nations certified carbon credit provider, under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. These credits have been issued by the UN and have been validated and verified by an approved certification entity and will be done annually.

Barloworld Motor Retail Australia builds “Green”

The new Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen dealerships in Melbourne, Australia were built with the environment in mind. These leading facilities included the following environmentally friendly aspects in their design:

• Water harvesting – 380 000 litre underground tank collecting rain water for washing cars and watering plants
• Automatic car wash uses recycled water. 100% of the water used in the washing process is recycled
• All glass is treated to reduce heat gain and loss. On average, the treated glass is 14% more thermally efficient than untreated glass. Untinted glass would have improved visibility of the cars in the showroom but the environmental factors were considered paramount by the management team
• Natural light in workshops to reduce lighting loads
• Air conditioning units are 5-star rated
  
• Minimum west facing windows to reduce heat load
• Planting 4 500 plants including 30 mature trees.

CAT MACHINE REBUILD/REMAN programme means less waste
About 41 machines were rebuilt in Barloworld Equipment Southern Africa facilities in the past year. These machines are mainly large mining machines, off-highway trucks in particular, but also include Cat construction machines that have built-in second life capability such as motor graders. Most rebuilds were undertaken at the Isando, Middelburg, Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Gaborone (Botswana) facilities. The programme reduces cost and ensures that machines are used to their full capacity, thus helping to save resources. Engines and drive train components are also rebuilt. Again the objective is to keep customer machines active at minimal cost and avoid excessive manufacture and import of new components.

Last year the Component Rebuild Centre (CRC) for engines rebuilt 140 large engines, 195 medium engines and 167 small engines.

Equipment CRC capability will be doubled next year through the combination of the engine and drive train facilities into a single expanded state-of-the-art CRC.

Barloworld Handling USA is serious about waste
Handling USA has partnered with a leading waste consolidator as an integral part of its environmental focus. Previously each branch managed its own waste streams dealing with multiple local vendors. Cost control, regulatory compliance and reporting were complex.

The current arrangement provides a central point of contact that manages waste disposal in an environmentally responsible manner. This covers recycling of waste materials including used oil, paper and metal as well as the appropriate disposal of other hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials on behalf of all Handling USA operations. The waste consolidator’s services include:

• Working with each location to minimise waste streams destined for landfills and to maximise the recycling of waste
• Ensuring waste is only handled by licensed haulers that carry environmental insurance and that waste is only disposed of, or recycled, at licensed and regulatory compliant facilities
  
• Collecting and storing required compliance documentation from haulers
  
• Consolidating waste streams with fewer vendors to better control the environmental impact and reduce exposure to regulatory consequences
  
• Negotiating contracts with waste vendors to improve efficiencies and reduce overall costs
  
• Providing reports on waste streams, improving tracking accuracy and relieving operations of reporting responsibility.
  

The arrangement improves administrative efficiencies as Handling USA has a single point of contact for waste disposal services that cover all its USA operations and underscores handling’s commitment to environmental legitimacy.