McLaren becomes first-ever F1 team to earn Carbon Trust certification

The McLaren Group is delighted to announce that it has achieved the Carbon Trust Standard – official certification of the company’s commitment to successfully measuring, managing and improving its carbon efficiency. This achievement makes Vodafone McLaren Mercedes the first and only Formula 1 team to be officially recognized by the Carbon Trust for taking action on climate change.

It follows a three-year period of rigorous assessment, during which the McLaren Group achieved annual savings of more than 1500 tones of CO2 emissions – the collective equivalent of running the McLaren Technology Centre’s wind tunnel for seven months, or the total annual carbon footprint of McLaren Electronics.

The Group was able to achieve such significant savings by fully optimizing the building’s control systems, and by implementing a series of the latest energy-saving technologies across its R&D, manufacturing and office areas.

The following initiatives alone produce a total saving of 1365 tones of CO2 per year and, relative to turnover, contribute to an improvement in our carbon efficiency of 8.6 per cent.

– Optimization of the McLaren Technology Centre’s air-conditioning system to run only when staff occupy specific areas. A monitoring system also ensures the correct amount of fresh air is delivered within the building. This project saves 812 tones of CO2 each year.

– Installation of energy-efficient lighting and controls across the whole premises, including pioneering work from a McLaren engineer to develop and manufacture bespoke low-energy lamps to illuminate car parks and access roads. These initiatives save 400 tones of CO2 every year.

– Rationalization of compressed-air supply throughout the factory in order to improve overall efficiency. This saves 153 tones of CO2 per year.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team principal Martin Whitmarsh said….

“We’re delighted to have achieved the Carbon Trust Standard. As an environmentally conscious company, we first commissioned an independent study of our carbon emissions as long ago as 2007, so we’ve spent three years working towards this certification. It’s not only satisfying to become one of the first 500 companies in the UK to achieve the Standard, but it’s also particularly pleasing to be the first-ever Formula 1 team to do so."

“More important, however, it further underlines Formula 1’s continuous quest to develop leaner, longer-lasting and more efficient energy solutions – whether in the workplace or at the racetrack. In fact, we’re probably the only sport in the world with the resources, know-how and commitment to drive forward pioneering new technologies that have the potential for huge mass-market crossover."

Achieving the Carbon Trust Standard is only the first step in a comprehensive emissions reduction plan across the entire McLaren Group. Maintaining the Standard requires re-certification every two years and will coincide with the implementation of further exciting new ideas to further reduce the Group’s carbon footprint.

These include construction of the brand new McLaren Production Centre as an environmentally efficient building from the ground-up, the trialing of a solar-panel system on the roof of the McLaren Technology Centre and the introduction of new energy-efficient server rooms. Source: McLaren