McLaren goes carbon neutral

33 comments on “McLaren goes carbon neutral”

1. 

   Calum (@calum)
   5th December 2011, 9:54

   So it paid for enough trees to get planted in order to cancel out the polution of flying to exotic locations, to burn lots of petrol as their cars circle tracks around the world?

   I demand an Earth Dreams livery for 2012! :D
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      5th December 2011, 10:24

      I’d say they must have even planted enough trees to offset the gigantic energy use from their CFD clusters and windtunnel!
   2. 

      Fixy (@)
      5th December 2011, 18:23

      Ah, they’re not having zero emissions, they’re just planting trees to contrast the carbon dioxide they emit!
      1. 

         BasCB (@bascb)
         5th December 2011, 19:13

         It seems they also invested in water engergy projects that fill the bill of being a “clean” carbon-offset
      2. 

         Choup-a-Charc
         7th December 2011, 17:51

         They do better with pedal-powered cars
2. 

   Txizzle (@txizzle)
   5th December 2011, 10:02

   For as far as I know that flying happens with several teams at once, and won’t count towards every teams individual polution. My guess is that they are mainly refering to polution caused by work at the factory itself (and by component producing companies).

   But what do I know?
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      5th December 2011, 10:26

      The FOTA teams did a study last year (or end of 2009?) to show what carbon footprint they had and agreed to lower it by some 20% at the time.
      Biggest parts were the actual manufacturing of the cars and windtunnel use.
3. 

   NebulaF1ghter (@nebulaf1ghter)
   5th December 2011, 10:12

   Keith! Headline (netural) :) Sorry:)
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      5th December 2011, 10:27

      ah, yes @keithcollantine ther’s a typo in the headline (“netural” instead of “neutral”)
   2. 

      ScuderiaVincero (@scuderiavincero)
      5th December 2011, 11:47

      I feel like an imbecile for not noticing that :'(
      1. 

         MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
         6th December 2011, 8:01

         Atclualy it’s how hamun bairn wkors. As lnog as the fisrt and lsat lreetts are in the rihgt pacle, it d’onest mttear werhe the oehtr letetrs are pcaled in the word ;)
   3. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      5th December 2011, 14:13

      Changed, thanks.
4. 

   BasCB (@bascb)
   5th December 2011, 10:22

   Interesting to see how McLaren goes about their bussiness there. I think it does perfectly fit with with their philosophy of being clean and methodical in their persuits, not leaving loose ends for future generations.
   1. 

      Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
      5th December 2011, 15:44

      Agreed.

      I am really pleased to see McLaren leading the way in this respect. Everyone needs to make changes to safeguard the environment and by going carbon neutral McLaren is doing a great thing.

      Their continued work with air traffic control systems at Heathrow and elsewhere will only further prevent unnecessary carbon from entering the atmosphere.

      This kind of diversification will only serve to enhance and sustain F1 in the trying times of the future.
5. 

   AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
   5th December 2011, 11:10

   I’m not really into all this global warming rubbish, however, I’m not into waste either. Good news.
   1. 

      MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
      6th December 2011, 8:23

      This “global warming rubbish” is also called science… just saying ;)
      1. 

         Lucien_Todutz (@lucien_todutz)
         6th December 2011, 9:48

         Sort of “science” ok… but an last year ONU report by a commission designated on this subject was unable to bring hard unrefutable evidence about global warming :).

         I’m saying that we should protect and preserve the environment… but, we only have a “weather/ climate” studied scientific for such a short time… and changes are normal to take place on big time frames, the climate evolves like the rest of the Earth… so we don’t really know that it’s normal or not how “mother earth” acts these decades :)

         PS Congrats Mclaren, this is the direction we should all take :)
         1. 

            BasCB (@bascb)
            6th December 2011, 9:56

            I think I get what you mean.

            Scientifically we know far to little to give any answers that come even close to certainty. It might make interesting studies for another 100 years or more.

            But its pretty reasonable to see that things are changing and a change would probably be very unpleasant and irreversible, so we better take the caution and act on what we already know is sure not to help the issue and get rid of it.
         2. 

            MaroonJack (@maroonjack)
            6th December 2011, 11:18

            There is a great series on YouTube called “Climate Denial Crock of the Week”. Basically every single climate denier claim is thoroughly and methodically debunked. The author also provides his sources, links and encourages your own research. I recommend it highly.

            I’m a petrol-head and I’m certainly not jumping on “eco” bandwagon, because most of it is just marketing mumbo-jumbo. However I’m all for genuine initiatives aimed at reducing carbon footprint, both at personal and corporate level.
         3. 

            Alex W
            7th December 2011, 10:38

            Only problem is, if everyone just bought carbon credits, said credits would actually become expensive, even more expensive than actually investing in renewables, which all energy users find uneconomic compared to fossil fuels. Go Coal!
            1. 

               Alex W
               7th December 2011, 10:43

               Should add that Malasian tree planting credits are usually for planting palm trees, but in order to get the land they clear fell batches of the rainforest, i’m not joking…. Wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened in India and Brazil.
            2. 

               BasCB (@bascb)
               7th December 2011, 11:37

               I wouldn’t say that’s a problem though Alex W, in fact, I understand it to be designed to work that way and let market forces do their work in moving towards more sustainable processes.

               Its an easy way and relatively cheap to get to be carbon neutral now, but its going to be expensive on the long run. Thereby making it more viable to invest in other things to make a company sustainable as these will become relatively more worthfull in time.
6. 

   verstappen (@verstappen)
   5th December 2011, 11:24

   Sort of nice, but even when all F1 teams do this, the sport will probably still be seen as a polluting dinosaur. It’s what you get for driving around in fast cars, running on fossil fuels.

   And in here we probably all know that football or other events which involve mass transportation, are way more polluting than F1, but that’s possibly ‘too complicated’ – just as it is too complicated to understand that the first Toyota Priusses were actually more polluting than a Hummer (looking at all pollution involved in the whole livespan of the cars).

   To end on a more positive note: let’s hope more teams will follow suit and let’s hope the world notices this.
7. 

   Ads21 (@ads21)
   5th December 2011, 13:06

   Well with frozen chunks of global warming falling outside my flat yesterday I’m glad McLaren have taken this monumental step towards saving the planet. A gesture which certainly hasn’t been cancelled out by a new coal fired power plant being built in China this week.
8. 

   wasiF1 (@wasif1)
   5th December 2011, 13:49

   So where is Ferrari & Red Bull on that list?
   1. 

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      5th December 2011, 14:14

      @wasiF1 Well, Ferrari aren’t a British business so they won’t be.
9. 

   Warren2185 (@warren2185)
   5th December 2011, 14:28

   I would like to know the calculations for the carbon output of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, including the energy to power their facility, build their tools, computers, cars and transportation, including the ground and air transportation to publicity and racing events all over the world, many by carbon heavy air transport and see just how they have “offset” this. I’m skeptical of these offset schemes.
   1. 

      BasCB (@bascb)
      5th December 2011, 19:20

      Given the fact they are pretty public about it, you might try and ask them for the reports on it.

      Its based on the Kyoto protocoll and uses methodology that is used for well published and an established standard @warren2185 – have a look at the Carbon Trust Standard if you like

      In their press release on their website McLaren give information on what route they took to achieve it
10. 

    MattB (@mattb)
    5th December 2011, 16:37

    In other news, Brazil confirm that a small British group have bought the Amazon rainforest.
11. 

    Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
    5th December 2011, 17:38

    Comment from TheBrav3 moved here
12. 

    3v3r10n9 (@3v3r10n9)
    7th December 2011, 4:06

    Still better than nothing. What else can they do? Electric motors in the pits? lol.
13. 

    Lucky
    7th December 2011, 7:18

    Nice sharing…..
14. 

    Phillip Stovold
    9th February 2012, 7:28

    I think it unlikely they have done more than offset the emissions from core company activity, which means the electricity use at their business premises, or around 18,000 tonnes CO2. It would be useful for companies making these statements to declare which emissions they are taking responsibility for – the scope is more important than the act and a claim that gives a false impression is probably counter productive, as is clear through the cynicism in some of the comments above.

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