UK Bentley Factory Goes Carbon Neutral

Now using 100% renewable electricity, Bentley is leading the way for car manufacturers

It’s not often that you see the words ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘luxury car’ in the same sentence but British luxury car manufacturers, Bentley, are changing the way we talk about high-end cars.

Just last week, Bentley acquired official certification from The Carbon Trust confirming that their factory headquarters in Crewe, Cheshire, meet PAS 2060 Carbon Neutral standards. In more understandable terms, this means that their Crewe headquarters is now a lot less harmful to the environment due to reduced emissions and acts of giving back to the environment.

Bentley’s headquarters uses electricity that is 100%, purely sourced from renewable resources. Some of the electricity they use will be supplied from their very own on-site solar panels and all power supplied externally is from suppliers that provide certified green electricity, which will also be from renewable sources such as wind and solar. 

However, there are other things to consider such as the emissions that come out of the factory and the materials that make up the cars and so on. These other factors have all been ‘offset’ through the purchasing of Gold Standard carbon credits. By purchasing carbon credits, Bentley is essentially investing in environmental projects around the world that aim to keep the world’s air fresh, waters clean and earth rich so that our planet is not reduced to a dirty, stinking tip site.

Bentley now owns the UK’s largest solar carport which is, in basic terms, a car park that also operates as a solar energy farm. Not only do the solar panels keep the parked vehicles shaded and cool, but also produce renewable electricity for Bentley to use in its factory. With 10,000 solar panels in the car park and nearly 21,000 solar panels on the headquarter roofing, Bentley’s factory now has a solar panel energy capacity of 7.7Megawatts which is enough to cover around 1,750 homes.

Although this may seem like news out of nowhere, Bentley’s Crewe facility has previously been recognised as the UK’s leading car factory in terms of being environmentally friendly. In 1999, Bentley was the first UK car manufacturer to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. Now that twenty years have passed, Bentley proves once again that they’re serious about treating the planet with respect by once again, becoming the first to achieve an environmental standard in its class.

Now you may think that’s all well and good but what about their fuel-guzzling, CO2-emitting cars? Let’s not forget that the Continental GT releases a whopping 278g/km of CO2 and does about 13 miles per gallon of petrol and the Bentayga SUV pollutes even more!

Well, as it so happens the company have made it clear that they plan to offer a hybrid variant of all-new models by the year 2023, meaning that those emission ratings and mpg figures will increase dramatically in the hybrid versions. Furthermore, Bentley have also stated that they will also offer a 100% electric variant for each model as well by the year 2025. Whether they will stick to their promise or not remains to be seen but the intention is certainly there.

Adrian Hallmark, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bentley Motors, had this to say:

“While 2019 has marked Bentley’s centenary, our focus is now on preparing the business for the next 100 years. We want to lead the way in the delivery of sustainable luxury mobility – by providing our customers with products and services that reflect their own values.

We are very conscious of our responsibility to consider the environmental, social and economic impact of our organisation, and today’s news is just the latest stage in this journey.”

If you enjoyed this, why not read our article on Porsche’s new electric supercar, the Taycan Turbo S.