The RFCA for Yorkshire and the Humber took its most visible step yet to playing its part in tackling climate change – by adding its first electric-powered vehicle to its fleet.
The KIA Xceed plug-in hybrid electric vehicle can travel a full 38 miles on its electrically charged battery alone. That means, together with its internal combustion engine, it averages 140 miles for every gallon of fuel – cutting fossil fuel consumption by 64 per cent compared to other cars in the fleet.
Deputy chief executive Wayne Pledger was the first to be given use of a partially electric-powered vehicle and was able to ‘refuel’ it at one of four newly fitted electrical charging points at the RFCA’s headquarters in York. He is pictured with head of estates Ian Hardbattle, left.
Wayne said: “We are all aware of the climate emergency facing the world and the RFCA has a responsibility to do its bit for the environment by taking this small but significant first step towards becoming greener.
“This is part of a green initiative backed by the Ministry of Defence Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy (see link) which was published earlier this year and just a first step in a series of changes we will be introducing.”
Fleet of vehicles
The RFCA has a fleet of vehicles used by staff, to travel between the 600-plus reserve and cadet buildings and a fleet of minibuses to enable ACF activity for which the organisation is responsible.
“The plan is to replace our existing vehicles with greener options, such as hybrids, plug-in hybrids or full electric, where possible and when they come to the end of their useful life,” said Wayne.
“We have four charging points in York and we will be installing further charging points at our centres in Driffield and Strensall in the next year.”
Other environmental measures include flexible working which directly reduces energy bills and a switch from printed to online annual and half-yearly reports to reduce paper use.