In an industry-leading step towards a lower carbon future, Melbourne coach and bus operator Crown Coaches has signed on with Viva Energy to fuel its entire fleet with opt-in Carbon Neutral Diesel, a product certified by Climate Active.
“Crown Coaches has always had a focus on a sustainable future, with long-term investment in the most efficient vehicles for its bus and coach services. The choice to use opt-in Carbon Neutral Diesel is the next step in its journey towards a low or zero carbon future,” according to Viva Energy.
Viva Energy’s Carbon Solutions team works with a range of industry sectors to help customers with their decarbonisation journey and has been pivotal in the introduction of Climate Active-certified opt-in carbon neutral products. Climate Active is an ongoing partnership between the Australian Government and Australian business to drive voluntary climate action.
Viva Energy Chief Business Development and Sustainability Officer Lachlan Pfeiffer says the move to use opt-in carbon neutral fuels is expected to become an important transitional solution for more businesses as they embark on their decarbonisation journey.
“We recognise that customers have a complex journey ahead of them to decarbonise their businesses, especially when they have fleets of heavy vehicles reliant on traditional fossil fuel products,” Mr Pfeiffer said. “Our Carbon Solutions team has been working with commercial customers to navigate their way to a lower carbon future with a range of new products and solutions.”
Mr Pfeiffer said that while new low-emission technologies such as hydrogen and EVs are on the way, transitional solutions are needed to lower the net carbon intensity for existing vehicles. “That is why products like opt-in Carbon Neutral Diesel and other low carbon fuels can help customers in the short and medium term to meet their decarbonisation goals. We have a range of customers talking to us about these products across industries such as mining, construction, marine and heavy trucking,” he said.
Crown Coaches Business Development Manager Ivan Furlanetto says the company has been looking for opportunities to be more efficient and contribute to environmentally sustainable solutions. He said Crown started talking to Viva Energy about low-carbon fuel options after hearing a presentation at the Victorian Transport Association Alternative Fuel Summit last year.
“Viva Energy was talking about a range of low carbon pathways, including carbon neutral fuels, and we saw this as an important step towards reducing our carbon footprint,” Mr Furlanetto said. “We’ve been working on this with Viva Energy since January this year, and have been using their opt-in Carbon Neutral Diesel fuel in all our vehicles. We see this as a bridging solution while we continue to transition our bus fleet to fully electric vehicles over the next few years.”
“The carbon credits used in offsetting the emissions associated with our diesel use are purchased and retired by Viva Energy on our behalf,” he said. “We are a local company and wanted this to have a local impact so we selected to use exclusively Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU’s) so we knew the purchase of this fuel was supporting Australian carbon projects.”
Viva Energy is continuing to explore the introduction of new low carbon fuels, products and infrastructure to address the needs of its customers. These include fuels produced from alternative feedstocks, hydrogen refuelling and EV charging amongst others.
Viva Energy’s New Energies Service Station, being developed in Geelong, will offer fast hydrogen refuelling for heavy vehicles as well as diesel, and electric charging facilities – all co-located at one of the first publicly accessible refuelling sites of its kind in Australia. The site is due to begin construction in late 2023.
