LONDON, Sept. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Dwight School London, a leading independent international school, is excited to launch a new electric bus service in partnership with the global smart bus transport company, Zeelo. The school has committed to electrifying part of its school transport offering as part of its ongoing mission to reduce its overall carbon footprint while also lowering operational costs. Dwight School London will run an electric bus service for one of three routes serviced by Zeelo for the home to school run. The switch from petrol buses to electric, will enable Dwight School London to reduce its annual carbon emissions from school transport by as much as 33%.The new electric bus route forms part of the school’s wider sustainability initiative, aligning with its Development Plan towards the reduction of scope 3 carbon emissions.
Zeelo has been providing smart bus commute services to Dwight School London since 2021 to run efficient, safe, and reliable home-to-school transport and is already Europe’s only bus transport company that offers 100% carbon neutral bus rides. Zeelo currently offsets the entirety of CO2 emissions of all its private bus & shuttle services for over 200 organisations, including the dead leg, and averages a saving of over 12,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. [1] Encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles for its services forms part of Zeelo‘s ESG Strategy to drive a transition towards net zero-bus transport in the UK by 2030, with Dwight School London becoming the first educational organisation in its portfolio to adopt Zeelo’s electric bus offering.
Sam Ryan, CEO of Zeelo commented: “Offsetting carbon emissions goes some way towards helping us meet our sustainability targets but does not resolve the issue of air quality around schools and educational campuses. We’re delighted to support Dwight School London with their CO2 reduction plans by enabling the transition of their school transport services from diesel to electric vehicles and help pave the way for all our education customers to switch to a net-zero transport service.”
Dwight School London, through its partnership with Zeelo, has already seen 10,802 car journeys taken off the road in the last year, amounting to 23.87 tonnes of CO2 emissions removed from the atmosphere since the original service launched in September 2021.The new option to switch to a 100% electric bus service allows all Zeelo customers not only to significantly reduce the CO2 emissions (an extra 3 cubic tonnes of CO2 emissions savings) but also enhance the quality of the air around their campus. Through a managed service solution that is supported by an advanced routing engine and operations technology that has been modified to include vehicle range and charging opportunities, Zeelo will make the transition to electric bus commuting painless.
Chris Beddows, Head of the School, said: “We place innovation and sustainability at the heart of our school’s mission, vision and values. We are thrilled and immensely proud to be the first school in the whole of the United Kingdom to add this electric vehicle to our fleet of school buses and our whole community is excited by this new initiative. As a school who takes pride in taking action for the betterment of the world, the electric bus will help make the world a greener place and signify to our students that the climate is something that is hugely important to us as a school. The Zeelo electric bus was showcased to the students and there was a real buzz of excitement and interest which spilled back into the classrooms.”
Zeelo provides tech-enabled, flexible turn-key and plug-in transportation services for over 1.8 million passengers per year on their daily commute to work and school across the UK, North America and South Africa, and hopes that this initiative will pave the way for more organisations making a switch to EV.
[1] https://fpm.climatepartner.com/tracking/16626-2111-1002/en
For media inquiries, please contact:
Dwight School London
Angelo Evangelou
Marketing and Communications Manager
aevangelou@dwightlondon.org | +44 (0)7810 503 630
Zeelo
Sonia Afzal
Head of Communications
sonia@zeelo.co | +44 (0)7950 467 773
About Dwight School London:
Dwight School London is part of the internationally renowned global Dwight family of schools with outstanding student to teacher ratios. It is celebrating its 50th year anniversary this year and remains a leading independent international school located in the North Finchley, Woodside Park and Friern Barnet areas of north London, United Kingdom. It educates children from the ages of 2-18 and consists of a nursery, junior and senior schools.
About Zeelo
Zeelo is a smart bus platform for organisations. The global tech company is modernising daily bus commutes for frontline workers and students so that they can get to work and school in a faster, smarter, and much greener way. Zeelo serves large businesses and independent schools and moves nearly 150,000 riders each month across the world. Zeelo’s tech-optimised bus routes not only reduce carbon emissions by 78% by replacing 30 cars for every bus journey, but also offset 100% of each Zeelo bus journey. Its innovative transport management software system comprises a SaaS platform, proprietary routing algorithms, and multiple consumer apps, and 24 / 7 customer service support (4.9 TrustPilot rating) that ensure people located in transport deserts have a regular, subsidised and sustainable bus service for their daily commute, wherever they are based. Headquartered in London with over 160 employees, an R&D team in Spain and live operations in the UK, South Africa and the US, Zeelo was founded in 2016 by Sam Ryan, Barney Williams and Dani Ruiz. It closed its Series A in 2018 and has raised over US$ 30 million in funding, including VC-backed investment from ETF Partners, InMotion Ventures and Dynamo. The co-founders previously sold their pioneering ride-sharing app JumpIn to Addison Lee in 2014. For additional information, please visit www.zeelo.co
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SOURCE Zeelo; Dwight School London
