• Lombard delivers first 140 hybrids to BSkyB
• Industrial farming methods for biofuels crops “increase global warming”

Lombard Vehicle Management (LVM) is delivering the first batch of cars to BSkyB as part of a contract to provide the media company with a more environmentally responsible fleet. The 140 Toyota Prius and Honda Civic petrol-electric hybrids, both of which produce less than 110g/km of CO2, will be driven largely by BSkyB employees who are being switched out of vans. The vehicles will be run on three-year, full-maintenance contract hire.

This initial batch is being delivered ahead of further changes to BSkyB’s company vehicles which have recently undergone part of a comprehensive transport review at the company which includes the UK’s first commercial trial of B30 biodiesel vans. Sky is currently developing a comprehensive environmental fleet solution which will be announced later this year and LVM will support the implementation of this scheme. LVM beat a field of 13 tendering companies to secure the landmark deal.

LVM has already delivered over 1000 vans to BSkyB this year as part of its contract to supply at least 1700 vans over a three-year period. The vehicles comply with the Euro IV diesel emissions standard and some are being run on B30 bio-diesel in the UK’s first large-scale bio-diesel fleet trial. The fuel produces 20% lower CO2 emissions than conventional Euro IV diesel engines. The BSkyB deal is the second high-profile environmental fleet contract secured by LVM this year, having switched existing customer IKEA into an all-hybrid car fleet.

Lombard is the UK’s largest asset finance company and part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Its specialised vehicle management business operates fleet of over 115,000 cars and light commercial vehicles

Most crops grown in the U.S. and Europe to make "green" transport fuels actually speed up global warming because of the NOx emissions related to fertilizer inputs, according to a study by the Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul J. Crutzen. The findings, reported by Reuters’ Planet Ark service, suggest alternative fuels derived from rapeseed could produce up to 70% more greenhouse gases than conventional diesel. NOx is the principal culprit (and about 300 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2), connected to the fertilizer used for rapeseed.

The study suggests scientists and farmers focus on crops which required less intensive farming methods to produce better environmental benefits.

The results, published in "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions," were based on the finding that fertiliser use on farms was responsible for three to five times more such greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought.

The report (see (www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/11191/2007/acpd-7-11191-2007.pdf)

suggests biofuels derived from sugar cane, as in Brazil, produce between 0.5 and 0.9 times as much greenhouse gases as gasoline, whereas maize used in the United States produces between 0.9 and 1.5 times the global warming effect of conventional petrol.

The study does not account for the extra global warming effect of burning fossil fuels in biofuel manufacture, or for the planet-cooling effect of using biofuel by-products as a substitute for coal in electricity generation.