Why Greenwich was judged most sustainable at Future Fleet Forum

The Royal Borough of Greenwich bagged the top environmental award at LAPV’s Future Fleet Forum awards. Here's why.

The Royal Greenwich Fleet Development team won an award for ‘Most sustainable fleet management department’, beating entrants from across the UK.

Fleet management in Royal Greenwich has undergone a number of changes and enhancements over the past few years, with the aim of surpassing compliance, improving safety and reducing its environmental impact. The borough is crossed by some of the most heavily polluted roads in London that are in excess of the legal limits.

By the end of February 2018, seven new fleet management policies covering areas such as dangerous and specialist goods and anti-idling will have been introduced.

Greenwich is also working with a number of partners, including Jaguar Land Rover, TRL, Bosch and DG Cities, to provide data for modelling autonomous vehicles as part of the MOVE_UK project. The research aims to reduce the time taken to test automated driving systems and bring them to market.

Councillor Danny Thorpe, deputy leader and cabinet member for regeneration and sustainability, said: ‘This is such a proud moment for Greenwich.

‘We are determined to do all we can to make Royal Greenwich a cleaner, greener and more healthy place for our residents. Our Greener Greenwich Strategy, launched in 2016, includes creating more electric charging points across the borough and a number of other initiatives to tackle air quality.’

The borough is investing over £17 million over the next four years to ensure that its fleet is fitted with the newest technology and achieves high standards of safety and environmental performance.

Councillor Jackie Smith, cabinet member for community safety and environment, said: ‘I am delighted that our fleet team has won such an esteemed award.

‘We are dedicated to understanding the impacts of autonomous driving technologies and the opportunities they will provide to local residents and businesses in the future.

‘This award recognises the work we are doing to ensure that our fleet is meeting the challenges of environmental impact, and leading the way in road safety innovations.’

The judges at the Future Fleet Forum Awards were:

  • Keith Kerman: deputy commissioner and chief fleet officer, City of New York
  • Eric Richardson: deputy fleet officer, City of New York
  • Vince Dignam: business performance manager, City of London
  • Arend Mouton: vehicle fleet manager, City of London Police
  • Chris Ruane: public authority development officer, Chartered Institute Logistics and Transport 
  • Graham Sheen: business services secretary (benchmarking), Chartered Institute Logistics and Transport
  • Ann-Marie Knegt: editor of LAPV and Fire and Rescue magazines