IBMG halves its carbon footprint with Fleet Alliance

Pictured above are IBMG’s group marketing and ESG director, Ian Kenny and group HR director, Sarah Campbell

BY partnering with Fleet Alliance, the Independent Builders Merchant Group (IBMG) has seen its fleet carbon footprint slashed by more than half, to an average of less than 50g/km CO2 per vehicle.

With more than 172 branches, IBMG has annual revenue of around £650 million, and runs a fleet of 110 cars and vans, with around 40 grey fleet vehicles, and a 50-strong commercial fleet.

Since implementing a green fleet policy in conjunction with Glasgow-based leasing and fleet management specialist Fleet Alliance, the carbon emissions have bene slashed with a policy that all supplied fleet vehicles from solus supply fleet management provider, Fleet Alliance, must be ultra-low emission models.

Founded in 2018, the East-Sussex based group operates primarily in the south and south west of the UK, stretching from Kent through to Cornwall, and up to Oxfordshire. Currently, its green fleet policy applies to the south eastern counties, and not the whole group yet. But plans are in place to roll out the low carbon fleet approach across all areas, seeing even greater carbon savings achieved.

The policy has been active for two years, during which time IBMG’s average fleet CO2 per vehicle has fallen from 109g/km to 49.5g/km.

Our objective as a Group is to achieve net zero by 2030, and we aim to have all our vehicles falling into the ULEV category by the end of next year. As our carbon footprint continues to fall, this is very much to the benefit of our employees with more environmentally friendly vehicles and lower taxes, too.

While this is in line with our own Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda, it is also in accord with that of our customers. Increasingly, we are seeing our customers in the built-in environment supplying highly energy-efficient products and materials, such as insulation and heat source pumps, to their customers as they transition to greater energy efficiency.

It would therefore be inappropriate for us to be making customer visits in carbon intensive vehicles, and this transition to greater energy efficiency is one that we are currently going through across our industry. This will only accelerate over time.

IBMG Group Marketing and ESG Director, Ian Kenny

Group HR Director, Sarah Campbell, said the move to a green fleet policy had been very well received across the business. “It is really important for us as a business, and for our ESG credentials and our carbon footprint, that we go down this route.

“Our previous car list used to be based on status rather than environmental impact. But with Fleet Alliance, we drew up a new list of vehicles under 50g/km of CO2 comprising mainly BEVs and PHEVs. This gave colleagues a large amount of choice because of the number of vehicle manufacturers now producing cars of this kind.

“We then spent a lot of time articulating our message across the business so that everyone fully understood our intentions. Colleagues have bought in very quickly because of the amount of choice we were able to provide, often because hybrids have a better specification, and they have welcomed the very advantageous tax system for low carbon cars. It could not have been better received.”

The IBMG was to be applauded for the initiatives it was taking to reduce its carbon footprint in line with its ESG agenda, as well as lowering the Benefit-in-Kind charges for its drivers, said Fleet Alliance CEO, Andy Bruce.

“This approach is one that we are seeing increasingly across our corporate customer base as businesses follow clearly defined ESG strategies of their own. This is a movement that is gathering pace all the time as the government’s deadline for the phase out of new ICE models looms ever nearer.”

Fleet Alliance itself is firmly committed to transitioning to EVs at the earliest opportunity, as exemplified by its membership of the EV100 movement. It has clear plans to electrify its 30,000-strong managed fleet by 2030 while its own corporate fleet went fully electric in mid-2021.