Net zero highways progress report 2023-2024

We have transitioned 88% of our fleet vehicles to plug-in hybrids and electric, and more were delivered in March 2024. To support this, we have 334 chargers at our outstations across England, 121 of which were installed in financial year 2023 to 2024. To reach our goal of a fully electric fleet, we are trialling 11 fully electric Traffic Office vehicles in different areas to see how well they work. We also added 68 fully electric Highways Inspector Vehicles, to join the 32 fully electric pool cars that we already had.

We continue to buy our electricity from a zero carbon for business (nuclear) agreement and are exploring our long-term plan around a Power Purchase Agreement for future use.

We are delivering a programme of road lighting upgrades on our network to meet our target of 70% LED lighting by 2027. So far, 39.98% of our road lighting is LED. We are replacing our road lighting at the same time as other maintenance and renewal activity. This makes the work more cost effective and reduces disruption. In 2023, we commissioned a full survey of our road lighting to improve the quality of our data surrounding lighting assets, which will help inform our progress against targets and the programming of future works.

Our flexible working patterns means we can reduce the number of sites we have and are on track to reduce our estate by one third.

We launched our green car salary sacrifice scheme in 2022, and so far 142 Electric Vehicles have been ordered by our people. We’re also working on an update to our travel policy and encourage our people to use more sustainable modes of transport for business travel. This includes adoption of a travel hierarchy, improving our monitoring and reporting, promotion of digital tools, reduction in flights, and transition to Electric Vehicles. Limited market availability of Electric Vehicle for hire means we are reviewing our timescales for completing this action. However, we are committed to supporting low carbon business travel and will be monitoring our progress in this area, updating our travel policy accordingly.

We will install solar panels at our depots and continue to monitor how we can generate energy on, or near our estate as part of our power purchasing strategy currently in development. Solar panels have already been retrofitted at 2 sites and we will continue to install solar at our depots at the same time as other planned activity.

We ordered 2 batches of seeds sourced in the UK, from around 30 native tree species. Our tree nursery suppliers have successfully germinated and are growing over a million tree saplings (known as whips) in peat free soils. We expect at least 380,000 whips from the first batch of seeds, which will be ready for planting out in the 2024 to 2025 winter planting season.

We are planning to select and secure the first group of environmental, social and community projects that will be receiving trees next year in 2024-25. In the next financial year, we are also seeking to commission a contractor to oversee planting advice and provide maintenance support to those successful projects. This will ensure as many trees survive as possible and maximise the benefits that these trees will deliver for our communities.

There are currently no zero-emission HGV models available that meet our requirements, so we are using the most carbon efficient vehicles available. These vehicles meet Euro 6 Emission standards. We are still exploring all options for lowering our HGVs’ carbon footprint, such as biofuels like Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Initial findings suggest HVO could cut carbon emissions from fuel by 90%. This keeps engines cleaner and prolongs the life of emissions control systems, when compared to diesel engines.

We are monitoring the market around zero-emissions HGVs and engaging early with manufacturers to explore options that will support us in meeting our statutory requirements in the future.

To learn more about Euro 6 Emission Standards, visit the EUR-Lex website.

Our teams are working with landlords to push for more carbon and efficiency savings across the leasehold estate. We have approached our landlords and expect to agree the Memoranda soon. 

We have undertaken work to improve the energy efficiency at 22 of our depots this year. Most were lighting upgrades, with a few heating decarbonisation upgrades and 2 solar panel upgrades. That brings us to a total to 54 enhanced depots. We’re taking steps to upgrade heating and lighting systems, installing solar panels, and insulating old buildings to improve their energy efficiency. Depending on the individual site, upgrading our heating systems to electric radiators or including heat pumps can result in deemed savings. 
 
We also awarded a contract to complete an initial 40 energy audits across our depots. This will allow us to plan how we will deliver an estate that is low carbon heated and that will generate on-site electricity, as efficiently as possible.

Our model for the first Net Zero major road enhancement scheme has been established. We are now considering where the first low carbon major project will be and expect to identify several potential candidates in the next few years. We are also working to develop a series of concept schemes to help support this commitment. We will use the outcomes to help identify where further action may be needed to successfully deliver the first Net Zero major scheme.

We have updated our plan to make all deliveries zero emission by 2040, based on the newest data and predictions about how ready technology will be for use. Updates included confirming the categories of HGVs and recognising the extra time it will take for technology to become available for 26 tonne plus vehicles. We are talking with our suppliers to learn about their plans for zero emission deliveries with heavy vehicles and to find any possible challenges. We are also collecting and studying data from our projects and suppliers to understand how to achieve our goal.

This year, we now have 227 new opportunities in our Low Carbon Opportunities register. We made sure our project teams use this list to find ways to cut carbon in their projects. We integrated guidance on the Low Carbon Opportunities register into carbon management process, to make the list more accessible. Now, we have 1,261 Low-Carbon Opportunities logged in our register. This shows our people and supply chain are considering low-carbon opportunities across our maintenance and renewal schemes.

In December 2022, we shared our Net Zero roadmaps. These roadmaps show what steps we and our suppliers need to take to reach Net Zero emissions for concrete, asphalt, and steel. We are working very closely with suppliers to test innovative, new materials and speed up their use.

We are working closely with the Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre to test how possible it is to use low carbon asphalt technologies on the network and help accelerate applications. We will do this by trialling longer life materials, more recycled asphalts, more cold temperature mixes and bio binders. Some of these materials have already been trailed this year – for example the use of bio binders on the A30, which was installed in February 2023.

We are also taking steps to deliver the actions in each roadmap, including the setting of maximum carbon intensities for procurement across these key materials.

This year (financial year 2023 to 2024), we supported the development of 11 projects under the Innovation Accelerator programme worth £1.7m. The Innovation Accelerator programme aims to reduce carbon impacts from construction and maintenance activities.

Accelerator programmes are short, intensive programmes that provide start-ups and innovators with a safe environment to grow their products or services through mentoring, peer-to-peer, learning and networking; in these programmes, start-ups and innovators identify weaknesses and adjust results before scaling up.

Our competition categories are ‘Alternative materials’, ‘Decision-making enablers for asset management and whole-life value of assets’, and ‘Enablers for the circular economy in construction and maintenance of highway assets’. The programme has taken Small and Medium-sized Enterprise’s (SME’s) solutions, tested their feasibility and delivered initial trialling to assess viability for wider testing and adoption.

We tested solutions like fences made from plastic waste, smart fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) bridge beams, carbon-negative materials for asphalt, and a bitumen substitute from old tires.

We will continue working to make adoption of innovation as easy and quick as possible for SME’s to use.

We have worked closely with the value chain to understand the challenges, risks and what is achievable with zero emission technologies. We will continue to engage with the supply chain to improve our understanding of the zero emission technologies. From this we will develop a roadmap to show our path to zero emission sites by 2030 and beyond. This roadmap will guide our suppliers on how they can support us and on what we expect.

We worked with industry partners to create a diagram predicting which technologies will help us reduce carbon emissions and how soon they can be used. This work aims to increase plant productivity and reduce carbon emissions, fuel consumption and costs. We identified nine key initiatives to support zero carbon plant being used on our schemes.

We developed and approved a Strategic Procurement Strategy and a Net Zero Carbon Plan for Temporary Accommodation. Our Supplier Community Group is creating an industry-led, ‘Standardisation Document’ for site accommodation throughout its lifetime. This document will guide how our supply chain works towards Net Zero cabins.

We have worked closely with the value chain to understand the challenges, risks and what is achievable with zero emission technologies. We will continue to engage with the supply chain to improve our understanding of the zero emission technologies. From this we will develop a roadmap to show our path to zero emission sites by 2030 and beyond. This roadmap will guide our suppliers on how they can support us and on what we expect.

In December 2023, we updated our construction carbon management system, processes and re-verified against the updated PAS 2080:2023 standard.

After reviewing our supplier contracts, we adjusted requirements for large and medium Tier 1 suppliers, who are procured through the relevant frameworks for construction and maintenance. While it remains a requirement for large and medium Tier 1 suppliers to be PAS:2080 verified by the end of 2025, additional requirements have now been specified for those working towards PAS:2080. This includes:

• self-validating their compliance with PAS 2080:2023, with supporting documentation published on their website and made available to us for review (in accordance with Section 12.2.4 of PAS:2080)
• providing evidence that they booked their audit before the end of 2025
• Providing a secured date for audit before end of 2026

The additional requirements enable a proportionate approach to ensure compliance for suppliers, allows suppliers working towards verification to demonstrate to us that they have the capacity to manage carbon and have done all they can to secure an audit within the required timescales. By the end of 2023, 24% of our Tier 1 and 2 suppliers had achieved PAS:2080 verification and 70% of suppliers are working towards verification.

Small Tier 1 suppliers will have proportional requirements that will align with PAS:2080:2023 principles and will be able to evidence this. We shared these updates with suppliers through webinars and our Carbon Hub.

Since we made this commitment, we published a national plan for EV infrastructure. There has been new charging regulation and we have introduced the rapid charging fund. These developments have superseded the need for an Electric Vehicle charging services and energy storage blueprint.

This commitment was closed in December 2023. To view details on how we will continue to support the roll-out of Electric Vehicle charging, visit our Supporting the transition to zero emission vehicles on the strategic road network web page.

We continue to facilitate a Rapid Charging Fund grant pilot to upgrade power grid connections on our road network. This will mean more high-powered EV chargers will be available to customers. The Pilot Fund will test policy, processes and design, as well as secure learning to inform the main fund.

Applications have been received from MSAs with a decision to be made later this year on which sites will be taken forward.

Like our EV charging blueprint, this commitment was closed in December 2023 because of new market developments since 2021. Now the Rapid Charging Fund Pilot has been launched, we will be working to support customer access to rapid charging at MSAs.

We are installing Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) across 9 priority MSAs on our strategic road network. These systems store energy from the grid during quiet times ready for use during busy periods. By the end of March 2024, we lifted 5 ESS into place and are now working to enable system commissioning.

We are working with Innovate UK on a zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstrator programme, announced in December 2023. This programme will tackle challenges for operators switching to zero-emission fleet and help boost market confidence.

As a result of this trial, we are not currently developing our own options for further freight demonstrators.

To learn more, visit the government news article called Government invests £200 million to drive innovation and get more zero emission trucks on our roads’.

We will use the results of the Innovate UK zero emission HGV demonstrator projects to inform solutions and investment plans in the future. We’re also doing our own research to see how the global market for zero-emission HGVs is growing and what it means for zero-emission HGVs on our network.

We have now closed this commitment as we have not identified anything in our control that can directly reduce empty lorry movements. To learn more, visit the Empty lorry movements position statement web page.

We launched our Bus and Coach Plan in November 2023 which sets out how we will improve bus operators, coach operators and passengers experience on the SRN. This plan includes steps to improve bus stops on our network, planning for diversion routes and reduce the impact of closures. The Bus and Coach Forum brings together our people and bus and coach operators three times a year to support our plan.

To learn more, visit the National Highways Bus and Coach Plan web page.

During 2023 to 2024, we sponsored a pilot travel choice programme to fund and promote car sharing, active travel initiatives and reduce single occupancy car trips to key employment destinations on the network. This information is being used to inform a travel choice programme that will be developed in 2024 to 2025 for implementation during the next road period 2025 to 2030.

Since 2020, we’ve invested over £70 million on active travel projects through our Designated Funds programme. This programme makes routes safer, encourage walking, biking and improves customer experience on the road network. We’ll invest another £22 million by the end of the second road period (2020-2025). To learn more about our active travel investment, including the flagship 8-mile walking and cycling route delivered as part of the A27 East of Lewes scheme, visit our active travel webpage.

We are currently developing a new set of actions, which will build on our current commitments and provide further support to customers to reduce emissions. Key areas of focus include:

• exploring what else we can do to help the private sector to deliver vital charging infrastructure across the network and help remove barriers to delivery
• identifying how we can improve the quality of information available to customers travelling in an EV on our roads and help bust common myths about EVs
• Exploring what else we can do to support and accelerate a transition to zero emission HGVS, including how to cater for the needs of drivers at roadside facilities
• ensuring our network is ready for an increased uptake of zero emission vehicles, by exploring what this transition means for how we operate and manage our roads