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Environmental Impact, Highly Commended

Rabbie's Trail Burners

Bank of America Merril Lynch Climate Change Award in association with the Mayday Journey
Special Mention

You must be the change you wish to see in the world'

M. Ghandi

Rabbie's Trail Burners is a Highland tour company operating in North East England and Scotland. In 2007 it developed a KPI to drive both carbon reduction and business profitability.

The KPI developed by Rabbie’s Trail Burners measures the amount of fuel used by passenger kilometres travelled. Reducing this figure is reliant on the fuel efficiency of the vehicles and maximising the number of passenger loadings.

Rabbie’s Trail Burners increased the fuel efficiency of its vehicles by tuning their engines so that they operate more efficiently. It also trained its drivers in eco – driving techniques to drive the vehicles in such a way that the benefits of these retuned engines are maximised. A carbon tax has been imposed, which donates £10 per tonne of carbon to Trees for Life, The Scottish Wildlife Trust and the National Trust for Scotland’s carbon reduction programme at Culzean Castle.

The in-house booking system adopts a flexible pricing strategy for all tours. Decreasing the price on tours which are not at full capacity leads to increased sales and as a result reduced carbon used per passenger.

Impact

Business benefits

Since remapping the vehicles in 2007 Rabbie's has so far saved £43,195 in fuel. (The cost of the process of remapping was £4,200 so an overall saving of £38995)
The new flexible pricing scheme systems led to an increase in profitability of sales to the value of £80,000 and a 24% reduction in fuel usage per passenger
Engaging employees to be responsible for conserving fuel has led to overall employee awareness about energy savings and has led to carbon reduction in the office as well saving on average £700 per year in utility bills.
Since Rabbie's started to become involved in carbon saving their staff satisfaction survey has increased by 10%

Environmental Impacts

Company carbon tax generated through donating £10 per tonne of carbon used in the business raised £3250 in 2008 and £4300 in 2009 for charity
Rabbie's guides educate customers about being more environmentally aware throughout the tour and this has led to 76% of customers being encouraged to be environmentally aware
Environmental staff volunteering days have donated a total of £6,500 in employee time and other costs