A significant part of Land Rover’s Responsible Manufacturing policy is an ongoing commitment to reducing emissions through the proliferation of renewable energy. So great is this commitment that Land Rover are now building diesel engines using wind power.

Every year, Land Rover’s Dagenham Diesel Centre produces 100,000 diesel engines. These engines find their way into a number of our models, including the Discovery, Defender, Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport. The energy behind these engine builds is harnessed from two 120m high wind turbine towers, which provide the Dagenham facility with 3.6MW capacity. That’s six million kilowatt hours of renewable energy every year. To put that another way, it´s roughly the equivalent to the electricity usage of over 2,000 homes.

The primary air pollutants in the UK are carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Through the use of these wind turbines, the Dagenham Diesel Centre has significantly reduced the emission of these pollutants. The facility has cut 3,000 metric tonnes of CO₂, 67 metric tonnes of SO₂ and 20 metric tonnes of NOx each year.

Carbon emissions from the assembly of Land Rover’s vehicles at the two production facilities at Solihull in the west midlands and Halewood in the north west of England are also being offset. This offsetting process is managed by ClimateCare, with Land Rover’s Vehicle Assembly Offset Programme funding projects that either avoid or reduce CO₂ emissions all over our planet. Thus, ensuring the amount that’s saved balances the CO₂ emissions produced during the manufacturing and assembly process. Of course, all of the projects that are funded by Land Rover’s Offset Programme go through a rigorous process of verification and validation to ensure the CO₂ emissions targets are achieved.

At one such project, wind energy and Land Rover’s CO₂ offsetting come together in an effort to make a significant difference to carbon emissions for our planet. China’s economy is growing at an incredible rate and currently, the country consumes about 10% of the world’s power. This thirst for energy has resulted in what’s been reported as the commission of a new coal-fired power station every five days. The Land Rover CO₂ Offset Programme supports 82 wind turbines in Hebei province, with the capacity to generate a total of 110GWh per year. This is a significant addition to China’s wind energy capacity and continuing aim to reduce the region’s consumption of fossil fuels. The planned CO₂ emissions offset in this scheme are equivalent to those produced by 5,000 Discovery 3 TDV6s driving 45000 miles.

It’s very nearly that time of year again, when graduate recruits from Jaguar Land Rover design and built an electric powered, environmentally efficient car to compete in Greenpower’s annual competition at Goodwood.

The Greenpower Corporate Challenge 2010 will take place on Sunday 25th April and confirmed entries have been received from Land Rover, Prodrive, Bentley Motors, TagOn/Cambridge University Eco Racing, Zen Internet, and Nuvia, who are travelling all the way from Thurso in the North of Scotland. Mix these with the top 15 school cars from 2009 and we have potential for a pretty special race.

Greenpower promotes engineering and technology as careers to students aged 9-21 through hands-on projects to design, build and race an electric car. Since its launch in 1999, the Greenpower Challenge has continually grown in popularity. Greenpower launched the Corporate Challenge in order to give companies the opportunity to pit their wits against the top 15 school teams in building and racing a ecological automobile.

Replicating a scaled down version of Jaguar Land Rover’s vehicle design process, they engineered a fully functioning electric powered car in only 6 months. This project is owned by the graduates from the start, allowing them to learn new skills and processes, as well as to gain an understanding of working as a structured team across many functions. We’re always keen to encourage a bit entrepreneurial flair too. The graduates worked on every aspect of the project, from finance to purchasing, IT support, marketing and PR.

Naturally, the key aspect of the project was to focus on being as environmentally friendly as possible. CO₂ levels were tracked, including all travel, general office use and, of course, the manufacture of the car. All CO₂ generated will be offset through Jaguar Land Rover’s CO₂ offsetting programme run by Climate Care.

Choosing sustainable materials is a key selection criterion. Last year, a new carrot composite material was used for the handlebars and the graduates used recycled ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) for the bodywork. This reuses waste material and the new vehicle’s body can be recycled once again after the race.

Julian Whitehead, Jaguar Land Rover’s Sustainability Director commented: “The graduates’ careers will be defined by the need to reduce the environmental impact of motoring and projects such as Greenpower are an essential step in defining our most talented employees of the future, seeking sustainable energy solutions and building on experience.”

The 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show saw Land Rover make the announcement that they would be integrating an intelligent Stop/Start system to all manual, diesel Freelanders. In addition to the benefit this has on vehicle dynamics, the improved system will help to cut emissions by 7% when compared to the existing, equivalent Freelander.

Quite simply, Stop/Start works by turning off the engine when the vehicle is stationary. That means, when you’re waiting at traffic lights, the engine will shut itself off but when the driver applies normal throttle pressure to pull away, the engine automatically restarts. This prevents the engine from idling, wasting fuel and releasing unnecessary amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

This added efficiency translates to an improvement in fuel economy, in a combined cycle, from 37.7mpg (7.5/100km) to 41.5mpg (6.8/100km). A combined cycle, or New European Driving Cycle, is a test pattern that consists of four repeated ECE-15 driving cycles. (The ECE is United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.) The NEDC is supposed to represent the typical usage of a car in Europe and is used, among other things, to assess the emission levels of car engines. These tests an improvement in efficiency of 10% from the Intelligent Stop/Start Freelander.

Such was the success of the system that Land Rover are committed to investing £800million in the further development of this and other sustainable technologies over the next five years. The new Stop/Start system for Freelander followed closely after the unveiling of the Land_e concept at the Geneva Motorshow in 2006. This is Land Rover’s vision for the future, bringing together the very latest in all-terrain technologies. The aim of this development is to improve the environmental performance of all of Land Rover’s vehicles without compromise to performance.

Land Rover have a responsibility to Our Planet which must adhere to two very important principles. Firstly, efficiency and sustainability are central to the ecological advancement of Land Rover design. Secondly, a Land Rover’s breadth of capacity is integral to operations all over the world, carrying people and supplies to some of the most inhospitable and inaccessible landscapes on Our Planet. This duel responsibility does not permit the slightest compromise.