I wonder if you can guess how much London cabbies spend each day on diesel fuel?

Probably not.

Well – since you asked… that number is more than a half-million dollars.  Collectively, the owners of the iconic black cabs of London spend over $600,000 on fuel, mostly diesel – each day.  And with that expense is a commensurate use of fossil-based fuels.  But now, they – and others – are switching to something else in what is turning out to be a series of large projects meant to save costs, to meet EU laws, and green up the city.

Which leads us to our second trivia question: what percentage of potatoes in Britain are consumed as ‘chips’ (what we in the US call French Fries)?

And the answer is: 1 in 4 of all British potatoes consumed in Britain are eaten as chips and the UK’s 8,500 fish and chip shops sell over 277 million portions of chips per year, all cooked in some form of vegetable oil.

A London company called Uptown Oil refines the waste oil and sells it at about $1.50 per liter, whereas diesel fuel costs about $1.75.  So people do not have to make a choice to spend more to get off of fossil fuels – they spend less and also make a more sustainable choice.  The oil is collected from rapeseed, sunflower, and soya oils, is filtered and distilled, and added to methanol.  The resultant fuel produces much less in the way of smoke fumes.  You can actually read direct comments by the London cab drivers (listed by actual license plate numbers) here.

And it’s not just the cabs. The EU’s new laws on new buildings require the near elimination of fossil fuels by 2020.  So companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers, along with the cabbies, are (through companies like Uptown) searching for waste oil from about 750 restaurants, pubs and other sources in the London area.  In the case of PwC, which advises clients on a consulting basis to reduce their carbon footprint, it’s a matter of believability – PwC is practicing what they preach.  As you saw in our last posting, this is something important to us.

Much of the information from this posting came from this Boston Globe article.

So here’s our summertime tip.  To learn more about green project management, perhaps settle down with a good book, a nice stout or porter, and a healthy side of ‘chips’.