Gabrielle Giner, head of environmental sustainability at BT Group, says Clean Air Day is an important moment to raise the future of electric vehicles and the work needed to be done to improve uptake. 

Gabrielle Giner, head of environmental sustainability at BT Group

Climate change isn’t an issue that anyone can solve in isolation; businesses must talk to their customers, colleagues, supply chain, and other organisations about climate change, what it means for them, and what they can do to make a difference. 

With over half of new car and van registrations in the UK belonging to commercial fleets, companies can work with the UK government to achieve tangible results on the transition to electric and zero-carbon vehicles. 

BT Group, including Openreach, operates the UK’s second largest commercial fleet comprising 33,000 vehicles, accounting for over two-thirds of its direct emissions. We’ve pledged to transition most of our fleet to electric or zero-carbon emissions vehicles by 2030. In June 2020, we joined forces with the Climate Group and 29 companies to launch the UK Electric Fleets Coalition. 

Together, the coalition has taken a leading role in communicating the benefits of switching to electric vehicles (EVs) and has helped shape the UK government’s policy to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. 

In 2021, the EV Fleet Accelerator (EVFA) was formed by the CEOs of BP, BT, Direct Line Group, Royal Mail, Scottish Power, Severn Trent, and Tesco. In July, the group outlined how supportive government policy could help unlock private sector investment of £50bn in infrastructure and electric fleets in the UK over the next five years. 

The report found that switching to electric vehicles, alongside the rollout of a national charging network, would allow faster public adoption in the mass market and help drive the second-hand market, which is the primary market for most consumers. 

EVs have the potential to reduce fossil fuel usage dramatically. But to succeed, the government must put EVs at the forefront of our green agenda over the next decade, working together with the industry to future-proof the electricity network infrastructure, enable the UK-wide rollout of charging infrastructure and expand the supply of UK-made vehicles. As laid out in the EVFA report, businesses are taking action, but the proper infrastructure must be put in place now if we’re going to build back better.