Fleet emissions, and what they cost to offset
How many vehicles, how far they go, and what they are: your fleet's CO₂ a year, and five ways to offset it.
Your fleet puts out
53.1 t CO₂ a year
5.3 t a vehicle
What counts
Scope 1
Fuel burned in the vehicles you own or lease: petrol, diesel and LPG. For most fleets, this is most of it.
Scope 2
Electricity you buy to charge electric vehicles at your depots and offices.
Scope 3
Staff driving their own cars for work (the grey fleet), hire cars and taxis, and charging done away from your sites.
Cut first, then offset
The cheapest tonne of CO₂ is the one a vehicle never puts out. Right-size vehicles to the job, move the ones that do short, regular runs to electric, plan routes so vans aren't crossing each other, and cut idling: an idling van can burn up to a litre an hour.
Then offset what's left. Credits that take carbon back out of the air, like native forest or biochar, are easier to stand behind in a report than the cheapest avoidance credits.
Roadtrip keeps every vehicle's distance, fuel or charging, and CO₂ by month, ready for a carbon report. Talk to us about your fleet.
Questions
How do I work out my fleet's carbon footprint?
Add up the fuel your vehicles burn in a year and multiply: about 2.31 kg of CO₂ for every litre of petrol and 2.68 kg for diesel. If you only know distances, multiply each vehicle's distance by its CO₂ a km. For electric vehicles, multiply the kWh charged by your grid's CO₂ a kWh.
Which scope are fleet emissions?
Fuel burned in vehicles your business owns or leases is Scope 1. Electricity for charging them at your sites is Scope 2. Staff driving their own cars for work (the grey fleet) and hire cars count under Scope 3, as business travel.
Do I have to report my fleet's emissions?
Large businesses often do. In the UK, Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) covers fuel used in company vehicles and business mileage in staff cars. Australia's large emitters report under NGER. Smaller firms report because customers and tenders ask for it.
Is offsetting enough to make a fleet carbon neutral?
Offsetting covers what's left, but schemes that certify carbon neutral claims expect you to measure everything and cut what you can first: right-sized vehicles, electric where it works, better routes and less idling. Removal credits are easier to defend than avoidance ones.
How much does it cost to offset a fleet?
A van doing 25,000 km a year puts out about 5.5 tonnes of CO₂. Use the calculator above for your fleet: prices run from renewable energy credits, the cheapest, to direct air capture, which locks carbon away for thousands of years.