EDF Energy has achieved an 18% reduction in its CO2 emissions by down-sizing its fleet of 1,000 Peugeot Partner vans to the smaller Peugeot Bipper.

It follows an engineer-inspired project to better understand their business needs against what the vehicles were carrying, which resulted in their payload being reduced from 800 to 600kgs.

“We find that this is probably our best example of how we can impact on climate before we start looking at alternative fuels,” said Chris Pascal, head of transport at EDF Energy.

Pascal was sharing his experiences of making EDF’s fleet greener by adapting and changing it in a “successful and sustainable way” with delegates at the Fleet Van Conference 2009.

“The method we use is what I call the three ‘Cs’ – compliance, cost to serve and climate,” explained Pascal.

“Down-sizing is an ideal example of how the three ‘Cs’ work. Buying smaller vans saves us money, saves us fuel and saves us CO2.”

By identifying areas of compliance, such as legislation and company procedures, and factors affecting cost to serve, including fuel and SMR costs, EDF has been able to systematically improve its performance while taking into account how individual areas influence each other.

No stranger to trialling electric vehicles, Pascal explained that EDF has also been testing the Smart, Toyota Prius and i-Miev vehicles on its fleet.

He believes that they will enable EDF to reduce its carbon footprint even further, predicting improved performance and cheaper vehicles were on the horizon.

“I believe by 2015 that if you’re running a fleet of small vans in London, or a similar-sized city, you will have as many as 5% of these vehicles on your fleet,” added Pascal.