The Environment
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Williams F1 takes its environmental and sustainability obligations seriously. While Formula One is reliant on the consumption of fossil fuels, it is providing the automotive sector with one of the most rigorous R&D environments in which to shape future green and clean transport technologies. In the progression of environmental technologies, Formula One has two broad roles to perform, namely, to be a catalyst to speed development beyond the natural pace of the market and secondly, to provide a global promotional platform for the communication and enhanced adoption of technological advances.
By the very nature of competition, race cars that consume less fuel and can race longer without pitstops have an inherent advantage. Engines and drivetrains that are designed expressly to minimise friction loss are more efficient and hence more competitive, requiring less fuel, less combustion and less CO2 output to achieve output objectives. All of these structural ingredients of Formula One mean that some of the very best engineering and design know-how is being applied to these objectives in order to achieve a Formula One goal of winning races, but in the process making a valuable contribution to reducing the energy demand for everyday motive power.
From Formula One, the trickle-down of technology is manifest – whether in safety terms as in the development of ABS braking systems, now commonplace in road cars or in efficiency terms, with learning and understanding of racing engines, gearboxes, aerodynamics or the interplay of mass and vehicle dynamics, Formula One continues to inform and lead passenger car design. It is for this reason that many of the world's leading car makers are actively engaged in the sport. However, in the context of the rapidly increasing need for environmentally sound solutions to everyday activities such as road travel, Formula One is contributing to an advanced agenda. Williams' sponsor, Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company, is actively researching and developing sugar-cane based racing biofuels in its Cenpes research centre. Cenpes employs over 1,500 researchers in the pursuit of fuels with a demonstrably reduced environmental footprint, and Formula One is a key test bed to validate these products, as well as to add significant promotional awareness of technological development.
In addition, the sport's governing body, the FIA (Federation Internationale De L'Automobile) is enshrining the requirement for Formula One teams to develop advanced environmental technologies, such as energy storage devices, into the sport's technical regulations. Accordingly, such devices which store kinetic energy derived under braking and allowing this energy to be 'recycled' as motive power, will be the subject of highly competitive and quick-to-market Formula One research and development, backed by teams owned by leading car manufacturers such as Renault, FIAT Auto and DaimlerChrysler. The technology step from track to road is thus significantly abbreviated. This is the catalyst effect.
The model for the Formula One catalyst effect is the progression of racing safety technology for road cars. In the late 90's, the FIA applied the rigorous crash test safety standards that were the norm in Formula One to the road car industry with the development of the NCAP Euro passenger car safety tests. Today, NCAP Euro safety ratings form a core element of differentiation for car makers to market and sell their cars. In the independent view of the European Commission, the NCAP Euro initiative, derived from the Formula One model, accelerated road car safety by at least five years.
The FIA is a guiding light in a range of other environmental activities including undertaking carbon audit and offsets for the sport. With a carbon sequestration programme now in place for almost a decade, Formula One has pioneered and promoted carbon neutrality internationally. Formula One's sequestration is completely holistic, covering not just the emissions from race cars at a Grand Prix, but the whole gamut of the sport, from the carbon associated with the teams flying around the world to the car journeys made by spectators. The programme is maintained in Scolel Te, Chiapas, Mexico (for more information, see http://www.eccm.uk.com/scolelte/)
As an independent organisation, Williams F1 is committed to the highest environmental standards in its own right, seeking to minimise material waste, recycling and repurposing where achievable and reducing its environmental footprint in its local community. The company's employees are fully engaged in these important activities. Individual initiatives include:-
Increased efficiencies and cost savings through recycling programmes
All paper waste products are recycled or shredded and this programme saved over 95 trees from destruction in 2004
All metallic scrap is sorted and recycled
All cleaning products in the factory are bio-degradable
All green or fibrous waste is chipped and used around gardens and grounds
An Energy Survey has been commissioned by the Carbon Trust (UK Government Agency) to evaluate energy consumption and reduction opportunities.
