Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes F1 Achieves Carbon-Neutrality

Even before it was popular to be frugal with materials that can be harmful to the planet and to humans, the McLaren Formula 1 team was working to be carbon-neutral.  It's been a long-held ambition for everyone at the team to be less wasteful, even in an industry where wasting materials - and money - is part of the daily grind.

In December of 2010, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 became the first in its industry to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard, an ongoing certification earned following a three-year audit of the team and its efforts to measure, manage and improve carbon efficiency.

Using assets at their McLaren Technology Centre, the team was able to achieve annual savings of more than 1500 tons of CO-2 emissions.  Earlier this year McLaren were recognized by the British government's Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme, which publishes the efficiency of more than 2000 participating UK businesses; they were ranked 92nd overall.  McLaren Mercedes were the highest placed automotive manufacturer in the group.

It's extremely difficult to achieve carbon neutrality whether in the USA or elsewhere.  McLaren discovered this as it went about its daily procedures, even as it implemented a number of state-of-the-art solutions that improved its carbon efficiency by 8.6 percent.  Still they needed to purchase carbon credits in order to offset carbon footprints.

In a period of discovery to investigate carbon-offsetting schemes, McLaren found a pair of initiatives they considered a perfect fit: two hydro-electric projects in Formula 1-happy Brazil and India, which were a perfect fit for the team, based on their employment of technical solutions that bring considerable benefit to local communities.

"I am both delighted and proud that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has become the world's first carbon-neutral Formula 1 team," noted Martin Whitmarsh, team principal.  "It's a considerable achievement, the result of a lot of hard work by a number of extremely dedicated individuals within our organization and a testament to our philosophy of continuous improvement within the workplace."

Whitmarsh declared the announcement of this achievement to be "the strongest possible pro that we've gone farther than any other Formula 1 team in becoming more environmentally sympathetic and efficient, an achievement that's of great importance, not only to our entire organization but also to all our partners, too."

© 2011 Anne Proffit