HVO Fuel
Following the initial announcement of our Commitment to reach #NetZero by 2030, we have started to look at areas where opportunities and improvements might be made to our working practices in order to push forward with our goals and objectives.
We have created a dedicated internal Net-Zero team made up with staff from various departments across our business, and together this team is helping to develop a range of plans and actions that will steer our business towards these goals, with a positive, optimistic outlook.
The first focus area was to look at the forklift trucks across the business, these vehicles account for a substantial element of our onsite fuel consumption and associated CO2 emissions. Historically, the business has been operating a fleet of diesel-powered forklift vehicles which initially we thought might need to be replaced with new electric machines, which could be very expensive, so the #WilsonsNetZeroTeam were tasked with researching some other options that might be considered.
Rather than scrapping these diesel units completely and replacing them with new electric models, the team came across a compatible fuel type that could be used in these machines, but which would reduce the associated carbon emissions by 90% and remove 100% of fossil fuel used in our loading, unloading and site management operations.
The solution in this case was to use HVO fuel (hydrotreated vegetable oil) as a substitute for conventional diesel. HVO is a next generation low-carbon diesel, primarily derived from used cooking oils, residue animal fats from food processing, and non-food grade crops.
In June we started to run two of our forklift vehicles on HVO and the initial feedback from this trial project is very positive, the machines are working very well on this new fuel. The plan going forward will be to start using HVO in more of our vehicles on site.


