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| Joe Barrett, Chief Operations Officer; Fiona Matthews, Commercial Director; and Bob Etchingham, CEO. |
Fuel and motorway services company Applegreen has established a carbon offset programme based on sales of its PowerPlus premium fuel in Ireland, writes Brian Byrne.
As part of the programme, the company will work with Irish NGO Vita in Africa, in a clean water initiative that is said to offset more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon each year. Vita is restoring community water points to provide easy access to clean water for families in East Africa, reducing their need to burn fuel wood in order to boil water, which results in deforestation.
Back home, Applegreen has announced that it will be planting 300,000 native trees including Pedunculate Oak, Birch, Scots Pine, Rowan, Holly and Hazel, around Ireland over the next three years, beginning in selected locations in Limerick and Mayo later this year. One tree will be planted for every tonne of carbon generated by the use of PowerPlus fuel, with a minimum of 100,000 trees per year and no upper limit.
Applegreen’s Joe Barrett says that if all customers buy PowerPlus fuel where it is available, the corresponding carbon reduction initiatives would be equivalent to reducing emissions from 180,000 cars.
