Emergency One Group Ltd (E1) are to off set their emissions in 2021 by planting a tree for every fire appliance built, becoming the UK’s first Carbon neutral manufacturer of Fire & Rescue Appliances.

The Scottish based company launched the world’s first fully electric fire appliance (the E1 EV0) in October 2020 and have now vowed to completely offset their carbon emissions by planting a tree for every fire appliance they build. With an output of 250 vehicles a year, E1 are the UK’s largest manufacturer of specialist Fire and Rescue Service vehicles and equipment, supplying to both the UK and International Markets.

Scotland’s SMEs are tackling climate change head on, with Emergency One hoping to inspire similar businesses to start making decisive actions in becoming carbon neutral. Managing Director, Mike Madsen stated “I feel we have a duty to show leadership within the industry and offsetting our (already reducing) emissions is only the beginning of our journey to absolute zero emissions across our operations.”

The news of Emergency One’s achievement was announced at a COP26/Scottish Enterprise event which was a part of Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone with panellists discussing their transition to net zero. The company also declared their ambition to be absolute zero by 2030, ahead of their ‘Race to Zero’ commitment of 2050.

Director Steven Bell, who confirmed the launch at COP26 stated: “It was great to see such a positive response for our E1 EV0; a lot of hard work and dedication went into this project, and we have seen interest in customers from France to the USA. Customer response so far demonstrates that the want and need for this technology is there. With a tagline of “zero emissions, zero compromise” for the EV0, we wanted to take our organisational commitment to the next level and ensure that the company as a whole also met this ethos. The decision to offset our factory carbon footprint today was a logical choice and one we had to make.”

With Government pressure on local authorities to plan for and deliver electric vehicle infrastructure, and move towards zero emission vehicle fleets, the E1 EV0 launch has provided Fire and Rescue Services with a proven solution for their future fire appliance fleets. The company continue to develop their range of low and zero emission specialist vehicles and achieving Net Zero status for their manufacturing operations was an important aspect of their ambitious environmental targets, whilst also recognising their customers’ responsible procurement goals.

Net Zero is clearly a significant achievement for the company, and one which it hopes others in their sector will follow. The company see this as the start of their journey, not the end, and much more innovative solutions to achieve their ambitious targets are well under way.