Written by Steve Moody
Most commercial vehicle fleets can report Scope 1 emissions reductions through electrification, but most are not electric yet. But for blended fleets, there is an answer, says Lightfoot’s Chief Revenue Officer David Savage.
In 2026, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies are becoming more important for businesses running vehicles, with fleet managers needing to show clear progress on reducing emissions.
Scope 1 emissions are the direct greenhouse gas emissions produced by assets a business owns or controls, including the fuel burned by its cars, vans and trucks. For businesses operating vehicles, ESG reporting has shifted from a nice-to-have exercise to business-critical. Customers, investors and procurement teams increasingly expect their partners to demonstrate progress towards reducing emissions.
How to do this though? Your vehicles are the obvious starting point, but there is another far more immediately actionable way to make an impact: drivers.
For cars used in a business, it is relatively straightforward for a reduction in Scope 1 emissions (the direct product of assets run by a company) because electric is transforming fleets into a zero-tailpipe emission sector: more than three-quarters are now EV.
But for commercial vehicles, reducing and then proving Scope 1 emissions is a far more complex problem, because the take-up of electric vans and trucks is proving far slower than for cars.
Electric vehicles were widely viewed as the silver bullet that would help fleets meet sustainability targets while demonstrating clear progress against ESG commitments. The expectation was that widespread electrification would rapidly replace internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and significantly reduce transport emissions.
But while demand for battery electric vans (BEVs) is growing, they represent only 9.5% of year-to-date new van registrations, which is still below even the mandated 2024 target of 10%. Radical transformation and improvement just hasn’t happened.
This means that for most businesses running commercial vehicles, they’re having to show ESG improvements with existing powertrains – mainly powered by diesel – and while there are advances in efficiency by manufacturers, significant, demonstrable change is far less likely.
This creates a real challenge for businesses committed to ESG progress. If full electrification is not immediately achievable, how can they demonstrate meaningful emissions reductions in the meantime?
The answer lies in your people. ESG performance is not solely determined by the type of vehicle being driven, but by how it is operated. Excessive idling, harsh acceleration, speeding and inefficient habits all contribute to unnecessary emissions, and addressing these behaviours delivers measurable environmental improvements even across existing diesel fleets.
Driver coaching systems such as Lightfoot can reduce fuel consumption by as much as 15%, meaning fleets can report comparable reductions in Scope 1 emissions without waiting for a single new vehicle.
The speed of impact matters too. Telematics and fuel cards provide a retrospective view, showing how things were when the data was logged. Fleet managers must then collate, analyse and act, and meaningful improvements can take months to show up in ESG reporting.
Lightfoot works differently: changes happen in real time, from the moment it is switched on, giving fleets evidence of improvement they can report now rather than next year.
The most successful fleets reducing Scope 1 emissions over the coming years will be those that embrace a blended strategy, combining electric vehicles when they fit, with proven technologies and behavioural improvements that reduce emissions across the entire fleet and operational landscape.
ESG reporting is ultimately about evidence of improvement, and fleets cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions before taking action.
