Historic Vehicle community rallies in support of carbon balancing scheme

Published: 10/03/2022

The FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) announced a carbon balancing scheme to the historic vehicle community last December. 
Whilst recognising that the carbon footprint of the historic vehicle movement is already immeasurably small, with the entire community accounting for less than 0.25% of the total mileage on UK roads, the offer of carbon balancing has been incredibly well-supported by historic vehicle owners. 

The Federation’s scheme offers individuals, clubs and those organising events within the historic vehicle community a quick and convenient way to carbon balance their emissions thanks to the planting of new woodland here in the UK. Importantly, that woodland will also be planted using native species to best contribute to the local ecosystem. Planting in this way also brings with it a host of other benefits, including increased biodiversity, creation of recreational spaces and flood mitigation to name a few.

So far since last December the historic vehicle community has successfully carbon balanced 553,564 miles.

The carbon balanced to date has been achieved through a combination of individual contributions from vehicle owners via www.trees.fbhvc.co.uk and those of clubs and event organisers. The FBHVC and Tree-V scheme is adaptable to the wide variety of activities that the historic community gets involved in with, using an equally diverse range of vehicles. 

The Federation and Tree-V scheme employs a carbon calculator, which uses annual mileage and mile per gallon data to calculate the tonnes of CO2 emitted by a vehicle each year.  
This figure is then used to purchase the equivalent amount of Carbon Units. 

When an individual carbon balances their expected annual mileage, they receive a welcome pack through the post explaining how their contribution is to be used and what their impact on carbon balancing has been, plus a sticker for either the vehicle’s bumper, windscreen or other easily visible area to show the public that the vehicle owner has contributed to the scheme. 

The scheme will be carbon capturing the Brighton Speed Trials, commonly held to be the oldest running speed event in the world. Other early adopters have included the MG Car Club Midland Centre with its Welsh Touring Rally and Club Triumph’s Coast to Coast rally.

Static events are also getting in on the act with The Guernsey Classic Vehicle Club carbon capturing all the exhibiting vehicles at their Annual Show. North Norfolk Classic Vehicle Club, who have committed to capturing all of their events, have even appointed a Carbon Balancing Officer to work with the scheme throughout the year. 

The scheme has also extended its reach to Transport Museums as well, with Dundee Museum of Transport and Dover Transport Museum both capturing the miles their collections cover whenever they travel to displays, it’s already proved to be an engaging way for museums to demonstrate their green credentials to visitors and the wider public.

As news of the scheme has spread throughout the historic vehicle community, individuals, clubs and museums have now been joined by a wide variety of businesses. These have already covered a wide variety of companies like Genus Digitisation, who are now capturing their fleet of work vans that cover mileage in the execution of their work on the preservation of historical artefacts and documents. 
Travel company Bespoke Rallies are also now offering their participants the chance to capture their epic adventures and the events company Great British Motor Shows are enabling visitors to capture travel to all of their shows.

Tom Worthington, from Tree-V reacted to the ground swell of support saying, 

“We’re passionate about the environment and driving in equal measure, so our ambition is to help as many of our fellow hobbyists still enjoy their passion without disregarding the impact of the motor industry and its enthusiasts on the environment. We are thrilled to see that the historic vehicle community has come out in support of this and we believe that it will help us spread the message that all our historic vehicles, from vintage to modern, should continue to be enjoyed on UK roads, by offsetting and capturing the albeit negligible amounts of emissions.” 

David Whale, Federation Chairman says, 

“The historic vehicle community is not only a very adaptable movement, but also very socially responsible. Historic vehicles have a place on tomorrow’s roads and it’s vital that we continue to enjoy our transport heritage unhindered. This scheme allows us to carbon balance the very tiny and insignificant amount of mileage we undertake whilst demonstrating that we wish to contribute to a net carbon neutral future in a positive way.” 

You can see more information and offset your mileage at www.trees.fbhvc.co.uk .