The final round of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship, Wales Rally GB, has been awarded CarbonNeutral® event status, confirming that the event’s carbon footprint is now ‘net zero’.
Wales Rally GB has positioned itself at the forefront of a more sustainable future for motorsport by becoming the first round of the championship to offset its carbon emissions, including all spectator travel, through a culmination of internal reductions and external offsetting.
In order to achieve CarbonNeutral® event status, Wales Rally GB underwent a comprehensive carbon audit, where all emissions were measured, including the energy used in the office buildings, all participants’ energy usage, the travel of officials and marshals, as well as all spectator travel for 2008. The final results revealed that only five per cent of the event’s emissions are caused by the rally cars themselves and the greatest source of emissions was found to be travel to and from the event by spectators, teams and officials.
Since the competitors’ impact accounts for such a relatively low proportion of the event’s emissions as a whole, the remaining carbon emissions will be reduced significantly over the next few years through a dedicated sustainability programme. In the coming months, Wales Rally GB is set to announce full details of this plan. Some of the initiatives which are currently being assessed include car-pooling for officials and marshals, replacing battery-powered torches with wind-up alternatives and having a full recycling plan in place.
“I am proud to say we have offset all of Wales Rally GB’s emissions for 2008,” explained Andrew Coe, chief executive of event organiser International Motor Sports Ltd. (IMS). “As an event, we have worked hard to put in place a plan to reduce our emissions for this year and ensure the event is sustainable for the future. It is vital for us to be proactive and ensure that whilst the event grows year upon year, the effect it has on global warming does not.
“Offsetting all travel was very important to us and we are delighted that our spectators can now enjoy the event knowing their environmental impact has been offset for them. The coming months are set to be an exciting time for Wales Rally GB in the lead up to the 2008 event and I am confident fans will not be disappointed by what we will have on offer.”
Sue Welland, founder & creative director, The CarbonNeutral Company said, “The assessment that we carried out for Wales Rally GB showed interesting results in the fact that the greatest source of emissions are from spectators, teams and officials travel. We will be working closely with Wales Rally GB to reduce these emissions year on year through a communications programme to their spectators to raise awareness of how they can reduce their CO2 emissions through small changes such as car pooling.
“We are delighted that Wales Rally GB has joined our World Environment Day campaign to raise awareness of climate change through reducing the carbon footprint of WRGB to net zero – this is the ultimate goal for all companies.”
To keep up to date with news and information about Wales Rally GB visit walesrallygb.com. Tickets now on sale
