Prestige Environmental Policy

Our Fleet: Prestige is aware of the impact that our industry has on the environment. We are committed to reducing this impact and to eventually become carbon neutral. All of our company cars are either Citroen C5’s or C8’s which are fitted with a diesel particulate filter to reduce both carbon monoxide and diesel soot to negligible amounts. Citroen was named Green car manufacturer of the year 2006 in front of top runners Toyota and Honda (click on link http://www.autoenews.co.uk/newsAEBSingle.php?artID=288) All of our company vans are Citroen too. Our VIP cars are Chrysler 300c’s which also have diesel particulate filters.

Hybrid Cars: The management own a hybrid vehicle which is currently being tested for customer satisfaction, comfort, economy and environmental impact. Hybrid vehicles have a large battery that is definitely not environmentally friendly even though emissions are lower than an ordinary petrol vehicle. However if the results are satisfactory we will introduce a hybrid fleet.

Biodiesel: We recently attended the Biofuels Expo at the Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire where we discovered some interesting facts about bio diesel. Before attending we were looking to buy a storage tank for biodiesel and place it in our car park. Whilst there we found out that although biodiesel is effectively carbon neutral, because of the fertilizers used by farmers, amongst other things, it omits more Nitrogen Oxides than ordinary diesel which in fact contributes to global warming more than Carbon Monoxide. For this reason we have decided not to use biodiesel at present.

Owner Drivers: Most of our fleet are owner drivers so we actively try to recruit drivers that are environmentally conscious. We have several LPG dual fuel vehicles on our fleet. Many of our owner driver diesel vehicles have particulate filters fitted. We actively encourage drivers to ask our advice when upgrading their vehicles so we can encourage an environmentally friendly choice.

Office Staff: We have been sending cardboard and paper waste to the Wandsworth recycling centre for over 9 years and encourage all of our staff to switch off lights and computer equipment that are not in use. All packing material received by our company is kept and reused and our central heating is thermostatically controlled. All staff are encouraged to use public transport and even our sales team do not have company vehicles. David Isles our Sales Director completes all of his client visits using public transport.

Paper free: Invoicing is now available on line and we have recently introduced a web booking service where you can book directly into our booking software. This dramatically reduces the amount of paper needed so we are actively encouraging all of our clients to use these services.

Logistics:  We sometimes encourage passengers to share that would otherwise be traveling alone. This usually happens at night when we are taking staff home that have been working late. It reduces our carbon footprint, but also that of our clients. We only instigate this if they are traveling in the same direction.