Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the South Yorkshire ECO Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme

Project details

Funder: Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (MPC)

Dates: 2013-2014

Project summary

Following on from the Evaluation of the ECO Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme undertaken in 2011, the Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) at UWE Bristol was commissioned to develop a toolkit that will allow scheme members and ECO Stars managers to determine the quantitative and qualitative benefits of the scheme.

The toolkit enables fleet operators to enter information about their fleets and mileage to calculate emissions of CO2 and air pollutants (NOx, particulates) as well as fuel costs. Improvements to the fleet (for example, purchasing newer, cleaner vehicles) or to the operational practice (for example, automatic anti-idling), which can earn fleet operators higher star-ratings, can also be entered into the toolkit allowing scheme members to measure the contribution that belonging to ECO Stars is having on local air quality and carbon emissions, as well as the financial savings!

Scheme managers (Barnsley MBC) are then able to collate this information to give an idea of the effect of the ECO Stars scheme as a whole, which they can then use to promote the scheme to funders, new fleet operators and other local transport authorities looking to implement an ECO Stars scheme in their areas.

The toolkit was developed based on the South Yorkshire scheme, but it is Barnsley MBC’s intention that the toolkit will be available as part of the ECO Stars package.

Please email Dr Jo Barnes at jo.barnes@uwe.ac.uk for more details.