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Decarbonisation
Greenhouse Gas emissions from energy use – and their consequent impact on climate change – is an important issue for all of us.
In the UK, the government has signed up to the 2015 Paris Agreement and, in 2020, committed to reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 – the devolved administrations all have similar commitments. CO₂e means all Greenhouse Gas emissions converted into the equivalent amount of carbon emissions. The RNLI has its part to play in helping to achieve this.
Increasingly legislation is making improving energy efficiency mandatory. We’ve achieved Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme (ESOS) compliance in the UK and Statutory Instrument 426 (SI 426) compliance in Ireland, through measuring and assessing our energy use and identifying opportunities for improvement.
43% of our total energy is from the use of gas and electricity to power our buildings and equipment, with the other 57% being the fuel for lifeboats, rescue watercraft and vehicles.
Our Poole campus Lifesaving Support Centre buildings, All Weather Lifeboat Centre and RNLI College represent around 43% of our total gas and electricity use. Lifeboat Stations account for around 26%, the Inshore Lifeboat Centre in Cowes IOW 4%, with the remaining 27% made up of our regional bases, support centres, shops, museums and other support buildings.
We’ve set a long-term ambition of becoming a zero-carbon organisation for Scopes 1 and 2 by 2050. Scope 1 are direct Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from our use of gas and fuel; Scope 2 are indirect GHG emissions from our use of electricity. We will not use core funds to buy offsets to achieve this.
Taking action to improve our energy efficiency and carbon reduction, where it’s practical and cost-effective to do so, is now a continuous process. The additional benefit is that these actions also help us to reduce our energy costs and protect against future cost increases.
Carbon emissions scopes
Emissions breakdown
In 2024 the RNLI’s scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions were 10.7 kilotonnes (kt) of CO2e. This was made of burning 3.1 million litres of liquid fuels for boats and land vehicles (8 kt of Co2e) and 13.5 Gwh of electricity and natural gas used to operate our lifeboat stations, beach lifeguard units, shops, support centres, and factories (3.7 kt of CO2e).
RNLI greenhouse gas emissions can be split into different categories depending on their sources as can be seen in the diagram.
We have developed a decarbonisation roadmap. This identifies key opportunities to reduce emissions over the short and medium term, including transitioning to lower-carbon fuels, electrifying our vehicle fleet, investing in renewable energy, and improving energy efficiency across our fleet and estate.
Through conversations with industry and internal stakeholders, the following opportunities have been identified. These opportunities make up the Roadmap and are reliant on many assumptions on readiness, availability, and cost, over a period which spans from today out to 2050. The opportunities are currently deemed the most applicable to the RNLI but that does not necessarily mean they will be adopted due to potential unforeseen circumstances.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and pollutant emissions from our fleet of cars, vans, lorries, lifeboats and rescue watercraft all contribute to climate change and air pollution and we have a part to play in reducing them.
Efficient lifeboats
Our lifeboats are designed to be efficient as well as fast. This will continue to be a key design feature.
We’re also monitoring future marine propulsion and engine developments. This is to enable us to eventually move away from fossil fuels to a low- or zero-carbon alternative, as part of our Zero Carbon 2050 ambition.
When our lifeboats and crew are out on a shout, speed is crucial to reaching people as quickly as possible and saving lives. At other times – such as training or moving lifeboats from one location to another – speed is kept lower to minimise fuel use.
We’ll continue to look for and implement ways of improving our fuel efficiency to deliver both carbon reductions and financial savings where it’s practical, cost-effective and doesn’t compromise our ability to save lives.
There are some technologies starting to present themselves as viable options which will aid the efficiency of our vessels as well as aiding more efficient boat driving. These include fly-by-wire controls, upgrading 2-stroke engines to 4-stroke engines and providing real time data to Helms and Coxswains. These efficiency gains are estimated to save 5% of carbon emissions per year.
Low carbon fuels
With 46% of carbon emissions coming from the use of marine diesel for vessels and launch & recovery vehicles, this is the biggest portion to decarbonise. Our most viable decarbonisation route is though transitioning away from diesel to biofuel. Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) can act as a direct replacement to diesel without any need to make alterations to vessels or infrastructure.
If 75% of the marine diesel used today is switched to HVO by 2030 then an estimated 32% of total direct emissions can be saved annually.
The RNLI will cut emissions from its boats and vehicles by shifting to biofuels such as HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil). The carbon emission reduction from switching to HVO is estimated to be 99% for scope 1 (and 90% if scope 3 emissions are included).
We have also seen a transition into the battery powered space with the procurement of an electric XEP (daughter) boat which was found to have a suitable and low risk use case due to its short deployment time.
Alternative Asset Propulsion
The RNLI is part of a series of research projects which make up the Alternative Asset Propulsion (AAP) project. In 2024, one of these was completed and two are still ongoing.
These research projects are looking to assess the usage characteristics for different vessels and see what the best opportunities would be for decarbonisation.
By taking an active role in research, the RNLI is able to take advantage of cutting-edge results, network with industry and stay informed about current and future developments.
Vehicle electrification and smarter driving
The legislative and industrial shift towards the uptake of electric vehicles in the UK and Republic of Ireland provides and opportunity for the RNLI to start to transition towards the use of electric vehicles. This will have the impact of reducing the RNLI’s burning of fossil fuels and moving that energy use over to electrification, which will decarbonise over time. It also has the benefit of reducing the amount of energy being used due to the improved efficiency of electric vehicles.
The RNLI road fleet is responsible for 19% of the RNLI’s carbon emissions. The current trajectory for industry in the road vehicle space is for mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). The RNLI is currently trialling EVs to ensure that we are best placed when these changes happen. If 90% of road transport is switched to EVs by 2040 then total direct emissions are estimated to drop by 13% annually.
The RNLI has also completed in house research on the design and build of an electric launch and recovery vehicle.
Smarter driving
As well as more efficient engines and cleaner fuels to help reduce our environmental impact, we’re also trying to influence driving behaviour among our people.
Our driver policies encourage appropriate and safe driving and good logistics planning for efficient deliveries.Promoting sustainable travel
- To encourage more sustainable travel to and from work, we offer the following incentives to our staff:
- Cycle to Work scheme, to help with buying a bike or electric bike for travelling to work.
- Season ticket interest-free loan to help with the cost of public transport.
29% of our carbon emissions come from buildings use of electricity and gas.
The RNLI Estates Team ensures that our new build and refurbishment projects incorporate energy efficiency and renewable technologies – for example, the current station at Llandudno consumes no more energy than the much smaller station it replaced.
The Tower Lifeboat Station project, completed in 2023, used enhanced design standards, performance measurement and assessment methods. These are now embedded in our Estates Team’s design methodology to drive carbon reductions, material efficiencies and landfill reductions throughout the construction, operation and eventual decommissioning of our buildings. These measures are all considered as standard by the estates team when designing a new building and include elements such as LED lights, insulation and building management systems.
The number of RNLI buildings that uses natural gas is relatively low, however gas is used at the majority of our larger sites and so annual emissions are still significant (8%). Gas as a heating source for commercial properties is being steadily phased out where heating is becoming electrified. The decarbonisation of the electricity grid will then bring emissions close to zero by 2050. It is estimated that electrification of heat can decrease annual carbon emissions by 6%.
Monitoring our energy consumption
To ensure we’re monitoring, managing and using energy as efficiently as we can, we receive energy use (electricity and gas) data from across our estate. This provides a clearer picture of our energy use and costs and enables us to target improvements in control, efficiency and the maintenance and replacement of our energy using equipment where appropriate.
The installation of smart meters is ongoing so that building users can better understand the immediate impact their choices make. Through access to energy data, our Lifeboat Station and Building Managers are able to encourage behaviour changes to minimise the energy used where practical and safe to do so.
The RNLI estate is going through a constant cycle of upgrade and repair which, coupled with energy efficiency engagement campaigns to drive good behaviours can lead to a decrease in energy use and therefore carbon emissions.The RNLI purchases electricity that is certified as 100% renewable for 95% of the electricity portfolio. As per the Greenhouse Gas reporting protocol, the emissions from electricity can be reported in both the tariff-based and location-based methods. This means that the RNLI can report that carbon emissions as per the RNLI’s electricity tariff are close to zero.
Generating our own energy and heating through natural resources like the sun, wind, ground, air and water (heat pumps) is supporting us to decarbonise our buildings.
The renewable energy sources we utilise across the RNLI – solar energy, wind power and ground and water source heating – currently provide approximately 3% of the total energy we use. These renewable technologies not only create energy for us, they also create an income. We’re paid for electricity that’s supplied back to the National Grid via the Feed-in Tariff, we’re also paid for offsetting the energy we would have used.Wherever possible and cost effective, we fit and use renewable energy sources to our new build and refurbishment projects, and have a programme of retrofit installations to increase our on-site generation capacity.
The RNLI’s built estate is responsible for emitting 29% of annual carbon emissions. This is split further between the use of electricity and natural gas.
Solar Photovoltaic (PV)
The RNLI has already installed over 700kWp of solar across the estate which in 2024 generated 200 MWh of renewable energy. This will have saved the RNLI an estimated £50,000 from electricity bills and 18 tonnes of CO2e.
Heat Pumps
We’re moving to a more sustainable way of heating our lifeboat stations via the installation of energy efficient electric heat pumps in new builds and major retrofits where appropriate.
As of 2024, there were 42 heat pumps across the estate. These have been a mixture of water source, ground source and air source. By diverting away from gas fired boilers or electric convection heaters, the RNLI has saved a significant amount of carbon from being emitted.
Ground source heat pumps produce four times more heat for every unit of energy used. They work by drawing ambient temperature from the ground through a network of coiled pipe buried beneath the lifeboat station. This ambient heat is then passed through the heat pump, which is effectively a fridge running in reverse. The pump condenses the heat energy and enables us to heat the building – and so warm up a wet and cold crew after a shout.
Exmouth (Devon) Lifeboat Station and The Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh, Northumberland are examples of locations fitted with a ground source heat pump.
