Environment

We are committed to proactively minimising Tristar’s impact on the environment by:

Constantly striving to increase the efficiency of our operation
Regularly evaluating all vehicle and sustainable fuel options on the market
Improving the environmental efficiency of our office processes
Motivating and empowering our people to help us achieve our targets
Reviewing our performance against an annual emissions assessment undertaken by the ECCM
Enlisting the services of environmental experts, where appropriate, to provide guidance on our environmental initiatives
Complying with all relevant legislation at all times
Taking any additional steps we can to reduce our effect on the environment

All of our vehicles are Euro IV compliant, a standard which we have worked to attain even though this is not a mandatory requirement for the chauffeur drive industry
All Tristar vehicles are 'clean diesel' run and as most of them are less than 9 months old they are fitted with the very latest fuel efficient engines
We have over 500 Volvo vehicles on our fleet. Volvo Cars's commitment to the environment covers the entire lifecycle of the car, from design, engineering and production to useful life, service and recycling. Efficient energy and resource utilisation and reduced emissions is in focus, as is an allergy-friendly in-car environment.
We have over 70 Mercedes on our fleet. During production of a vehicle, Mercedes ensure that they use recycled materials where possible, and also ensure that as much of the car as possible is in turn recyclable at the end of its life

We have formed an environmental focus group which meets once a month, headed by Dean de Beer, MD, to ensure key environmental actions are implemented
We have converted from paper to electronic processes where possible, from storage to invoicing
We have carried out a complete lighting review, changing to motion - or photo-sensitive lights where appropriate. All lightbulbs are low energy
We have installed timer switches on all machines possible: e.g. the water coolers and photocopiers
We have carried out a purchasing review and are now sourcing recycled, environmentally friendly, fair trade or more efficient products wherever we can
We reviewed our paper usage and have programmed printers to print double sided where possible, encouraged the use of both sides of office paper and stepped up our recycling activity
All of our old telephones, PDAs, printer cartridges and computers are donated to national charities that arrange for these to be recycled and also receive money for them
We are considering installing wind turbines on site to generate energy for our head office

We have ongoing programmes evaluating other vehicles on the market including hybrid and bio-fuel
We are currently trialling a Toyota Prius to assess its suitability for our operation
We have an ongoing dialogue with Volvo and a leading fuel supplier regarding the viability of the introduction of flexifuel vehicles
Together with an independent environmental consultant, we are carrying out a "dust to dust" assessment of several vehicle manufacturers so that we can consider the entire environmental impact of a vehicle when considering it for our fleet
We have installed Nitrogen air compressors on site with which to fill the tyres on all vehicles. Nitrogen fills tyres evenly and furthermore maintains a more constant tyre pressure, which results in an improvement in tyre wear, fuel consumption and safety
Our new car wash which recycles over 70% of the water it uses. We are also installing an underground rain collection tank for the carwash, even further reducing the usage of mains water
All Tristar chauffeurs are trained on environmental driving practices
All our old tyres, batteries, used oil and car parts are collected to be recycled