GoCarbonFree ‘greens’ Arsenal’s team bus

UK-based GoCarbonFree Ltd has ‘greened’ Arsenal’s team bus to raise awareness of climate change and to campaign for a return of train ‘football specials’.

The bus, a £270,000 Neoplan Starliner 2*, is the ‘Rolls Royce’ of coaches and a popular model for top Premiership teams. Weighing 24 tonnes, the 490bhp Starliner manages just over 2.2 miles per litre. Whilst complying with Euro-4 emissions, the coach is still a source of heavy CO2 emissions as it takes the Arsenal squad to away fixtures.

GoCarbonFree will present Arsene Wenger with one Gold Standard carbon credit** that will offset the 170 litres of fuel his team’s coach will burn on its return journey to Arsenal’s first away match at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday 18th August 2007.

With the football season about to start, GoCarbonFree aims to raise awareness of road transport and the millions of miles travelled by teams and their fans. With road transport accounting for a fifth of the UK's entire national carbon emissions, GoCarbonFree also wants to persuade Clubs to bring back the football specials of the 70’s and 80’s which transported thousands of fans via train rather than car.

Hubertus Thylmann, Managing Director of GoCarbonFree, says: “GoCarbonFree is the UK's first shopping portal that lets customers earn free personal carbon credits. The website also allows shoppers to nominate a carbon-reducing cause of their choice with Arsenal’s team bus being the unanimous verdict in the latest poll. We want to encourage all Premiership teams to bring back the train football specials!”

* Note to editors Arsenal’s Starliner is decked out with every conceivable luxury including leather seats, an eight-channel entertainment system, DVD player, a video, a fully equipped kitchen and satellite TV. Arsenal’s coach has also been modified with a £15k Bose sound system and state-of-the-art air conditioning. ** Note to editors: The Gold Standard is a certification scheme that recognizes the best projects in the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI) and voluntary offset markets. The brand has value because 42 non governmental organizations endorse the Gold Standard method and many buyers favour or request Gold Standard carbon credits. http://www.cdmgoldstandard.org/index.php

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