Kura’s climate pledge continues to tackle transport emissions and provide educational and social benefits around the world.
When it comes to education, reading and studying away from the classroom is key in a child’s academic life.
One project Kura and its customers are helping to fund through its offset programme is Orb Solar, which makes it possible for children to learn after the sun sets.
Electricity demand in India can overload the system, meaning thousands of young people could be left in blackouts and miss out on doing homework or reading for pleasure. Orb Energy has bought more than 160,000 solar power and solar water heating systems to customers to cut emissions and reduce indoor pollution by replacing the use of kerosene lamps in India’s rural areas.
As well as reducing electricity bills by more than 50 per cent, it has cut around 55,000 tonnes of CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent, a year by replacing the use of kerosene or electricity from a grid reliant on fossil fuels.
Kura partnered with Climate Impact Partners to offset our own emissions as a business, as well as helping our customers reduce their transport carbon footprints, via important global projects such as Orb Solar. These projects cut carbon emissions in developing countries, helping to tackle climate change and improve people’s lives.
Every booking with Kura has the unavoidable carbon emissions calculated and offset as part of the school transport services we offer. Where we provide technology for schools and businesses to better manage their own transport, they can opt-in to offset their emissions via the long-standing Kura and Climate Impact Partners partnership.
For our customers and our staff, supporting vital projects that help young children and families is hugely rewarding.
As the UK’s largest shared transport and technology specialist, Kura recognises offsetting alone is not the answer. Therefore, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment. We have appointed an internal ‘green champion’ who holds monthly education sessions for staff and reports to the Board on emissions data.
Our climate pledge includes a carbon neutral action plan, reducing carbon emissions by offering school transport software that makes the school run safer, greener and smarter.
Kura works with our customers to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, with one 49-seat coach replacing 31 cars (at the UK average of 1.5 persons per car). This cuts emissions by around 70 per cent each journey.
While Electric vehicles are often viewed as being more environmentally friendly, they do not tackle the increasing problem of vehicle congestion. EVs are also only as clean as their power supply, given they rely on regular charging from the local electricity network.
Worryingly, as recession looms, there is a risk some green initiatives could take a backseat. However, we should strive to avoid this.
Climate-related disasters and record temperatures in 2022 underline the massive impact of climate change and the risks of putting sustainability plans on hold. World leaders are this month discussing action at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, but Kura believes we all have a responsibility to help safeguard the future of our planet.
For more on Kura’s climate pledge