GLH, The Environment & Green Transport Solutions
GLH is an independent business committed to providing our clients with a green and sustainable, eco friendly transport option…
GLH has been operating in the private hire transport market for nearly 45 years, specialising in passenger car and courier transportation and we have ensured a core focus is firmly placed on green transport solutions and eco-friendly business models.
We know our success and longevity is largely attributable to our commitment to sustainable travel and responsiveness to minimising our and our clients’ environmental impact.
This year brought the annual audit for ISO 14001, which we passed with no recommendations.
We took the decision to also go for re-certification; this meant we re-assessed our systems, processes and procedures to ensure they continued to meet the needs of our changing and expanding business.
We have not wavered on the implementing of our strict procurement policy, ensuring that everyone involved is adhering to strong environmental and sustainable criteria.
This has culminated in an overall cut in emissions of over 30% and a financial saving of £400,000 - both per year.
The financial savings made each year are automatically re-invested into the business, enabling us to continue procuring the most sustainable fleet and ensuring we continue to offer the most sustainable transport option to our existing and new customers.
Our Environmental Cars
This decision to reinvest in our business, has resulted in the purchasing of Toyota Prius, with emissions output of only 89 g/km and yearly savings of over 800 tonnes of CO2.
We have since reviewed our fleets and updated 50% of the Prius to the Next Generation reducing emissions to a staggering 89 g/km which is 58% lower than a black taxi!
Our green fleet is helping to save our drivers money, this year saw us set up a drivers saving scheme.
The scheme is paid into by the drivers and matched by GLH, it is totally voluntary but take up has been phenomenal. We have developed further training for all drivers on minimising their environmental impact and driving economically.
Training & Team Development
Sustainability training has now been rolled out across the company and this year saw the Board of Directors and Advisors go through C-Change’s ‘Making Business Sense of Sustainability’ Training Programme.
The Sales team’s learning has continued and has seen them combine workshop style learning with experiential community engagement. We are confident that all our employees are now able to talk about the distinct competitive advantage we can offer our clients.
Our drivers, clients, local community and we have reaped financial benefits. Our drivers now get 70 miles per gallon, saving around £40 per week on fuel. We have also invested in additional training for all drivers on minimising their environmental impact and driving economically.
We have an environmentally aware, motivated and committed workforce; that are brilliant advocates for the company’s sustainability vision.
Eco Friendly Awareness
In partnership with C-Change we deliver awareness sessions to the Sales team on addressing environmental impact internally and supporting our clients do the same.
We have created a distinct competitive advantage by offering our clients a sustainable and cost efficient transport procurement package, resulting in us securing large long-term contracts with household names.
As part of our carbon acknowledgement work with C-Change we have invested in Eco-Mission, a sustainability education programme aimed at reducing energy costs and carbon emissions in our local community.
Eco-Mission is currently being delivered to students from across the year groups at The Ravenscroft School in Barnet. We believe that educating the minds of the next generation on how to minimise their environmental impact is important component in spreading the message and being a responsible business.
Since developing Eco-Mission, it is now being delivered in the Ravenscroft Secondary School approximately 4 miles from our head office. The response and support from the school and the London Borough of Barnet Council has been tremendous.
A Sustainability Audit has been undertaken and has highlighted the potential for 10-15% savings in carbon emissions and approximately £2000 worth of savings - this was music to the Council’s ears. A series of interactive sustainability and climate change themed workshops have been delivered and a number of engaging projects have been started.
The school has now achieved both its Bronze and Silver Eco-Schools Awards and is able to boast a full recycling system. Further a joint event was organised with Martin Primary School and Ravenscroft Secondary School to coincide with the BBC’s Breathing Places record-breaking attempt. The day saw nearly 100 children; young people, parents and teachers take part in planting over 300 trees in under an hour.
Tree O'clock Event at Martins Primary School
John Scott – Founder, Zoë Powers – Operations Director
For us, investing in local community-based educational projects is key to ensuring that we are supporting our stakeholders on their sustainability journey. We are acutely aware that we cannot transition to being a sustainable business without the support of our stakeholders.
Our community focus did take centre stage this year, but this didn’t mean we neglected our carbon emissions. We were delighted when our third audit showed that we reduced emissions by over 30% from the previous two years - a massive achievement.
Looking ahead, we are now fully in the throws of installing our new auto-allocation dispatch system, this will significantly reduce dead mileage and improve the overall efficiency of the service offered to clients. The system will also provide us with advanced environmental performance data and allow us to report with increased accuracy on the amount of carbon emitted per journey, so we can continue to fine tune our green travel plan.
Finally, we will also be adding the new Toyota Prius 7 seater to our fleet, to ensure we are providing an even more comprehensive and expansive green transport solution.
