Eco-friendly cab firm boss up for second Green Award

Colin Paton believeshis approach could cut emissions from the taxi business by 30 million tonnes every year.

His firm has already won a place on the prestigious Scottish Green List and has now been nominated for theScottish Green Awards, to be handed out next month.

Mr Paton has introduced hybrid petro-electric Toyota Prius vehicles to his fleet to slash emissions, put his drivers through "green" courses to reduce fuel consumption - andplans to make his own biofuel from chip shop oil to run part of his fleet.

He also recycles old oil and tyres and has built a garage and workshop for the firm to save on mileage.

The father-of-two has put up with rival taxi firms laughing at him and trying to scupper his business - but believes they have now gone beyond jealousy and are looking at what he has achieved - because they can see it makes financial as well as environmental sense.

Mr Paton said: "It started just before Christmas 2008 when I popped into a Toyota garage - and wondered if the Prius vehicles could work for us.There was lots of publicity about environmentalismand Ithought it would be good to go down the green road."

Mr Paton did his sums and bought six Toyota Priuses for his firm, Calder Cabs in West Lothian. Each one cost about 5,000 more than the cars they were replacing, butMr Paton was convinced the savings in fuel economy and road tax could see him claw back the money within four years. "That was a pessimistic view," he said. "I think I will make my money back in two and a half or three years."

Bringing in the new vehicles saw the firm's fuel bills drop by about 300 a week immediately and improved consumption massively.

The larger vehicles in the fleet are not available as hybrids, but Mr Patonnow runs them on biodiesel.

He added: "There are huge savings on CO2. We are looking at it in a green way but we are also sure it will pay business dividends in future.

"If every taxi went down this route, it would make a massive difference.

"A taxi can save one tonne ofcarbon every 12,000 miles by doing what we have done - that could add up to 30 million tonnesacross Scotland. And that's just the taxi business.

"There are firms waiting for us to fail but the government has to make sure we are successful for the good of Scotland and its environment.

"If they are to cut emissions by the amount they want (Scotland's 42 per cent target by 2020 is the most ambitious in the world], that's the way to go."

Evan Williams, Chair of the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum, which put together the Green List, said: "The taxi business is not usually what people think of as a green business but Colin has shown there are ways to transform traditionally high emission activity into a part of the new low carbon Scotland."Calder Cabs is a great example of how sustainability makes perfect business sense.

"There is no reason why others can't follow this excellent example."