The latest batch of electric vehicles for use by the Scottish Government’s forestry agencies has been delivered, eight Kia e-Niro EVs and three Nissan e-NV200 light commercial vans.
Purchase of the eleven new, zero-emission vehicles was made possible through the Transport Scotland’s Switched on Fleets & Infrastructure 20/21 Funding, and is a step towards Forestry and Land Scotland and Scottish Forestry continuing their journeys towards becoming a net zero organisations by 2045 or sooner.
The latest acquisitions takes the agencies’ electric vehicle total to almost 10% of their combined admin fleet; FLS’s electric vehicle up to 22 vehicles and Scottish Forestry’s to six vehicles.
Scottish Forestry’s electric vehicles will be used by Woodland Officers who need to visit woodland sites for inspections and as part of their everyday duties in promoting woodland creation projects.
FLS’s new vehicles will be used from its offices in Selkirk, Dumfries, Newton Stewart, West Calder, Inverness, Fochabers and Durris.
Simon Hodgson, FLS Chief Executive, said; “While our day-to-day business of planting trees and looking after Scotland’s national forests and land is an important part of Scotland’s Climate Emergency mitigation effort, there is always more that we can do.
“Shifting our fleet to electric vehicles will help reduce our overall emissions as an organisation and with an ever increasing choice of electric vehicles coming to market, we’re able to source the right vehicles that we need.
“Thanks to the Switched on Fleet Funding from Transport Scotland, we’ve taken another step towards our zero emissions target.”
Chris Champion, from Transport Scotland’s, Low Carbon Economy Directorate, said: “We are delighted to further support Forestry and Land Scotland in transitioning its vehicle fleet to zero emission alternatives.
“The technology that powers these vehicles has improved considerably in the last two to three years, which makes them an increasingly attractive option for organisations that run a vehicle fleet.
“We were pleased to be able to offer FLS £84,000 to increase their electric fleet. Bringing more and more of these cleaner vehicles into public service will help Scotland meet its net zero ambitions.”
Dave Signorini, Chief Executive of Scottish Forestry added: “We all have a corporate duty to reduce our emissions as Scotland strives to be a net zero nation by 2045. Not only are we working hard to deliver increased carbon sequestration in woodlands, but we are also taking more direct action in our own business.
“Switching to electric vehicles is just one of a number of important measures that our agency will be taking to reduce our footprint for future years. We will be exploring the potential for more home working to avoid travel emissions and considering the best use of office space. We also plan to work with Zero Waste Scotland to identify other emission reducing activities that we can undertake.”
FLS and SF are working towards expanding their charging point infrastructure across Scotland in support of plans to increase the proportion of electric vehicles in their admin fleets. Electric vehicle charging points are already installed at 12 FLS locations and at a further three SF locations.
