Van travel has a worse environmental impact than a flight?

One time I was on a mad dash in my van to the south of Spain. Amsterdam to Granada in less than 2 days. I wouldn’t recommend it. A far more experienced traveler than me, aptly called the slow dutchman, recently told me his core principles to slow travel, don’t drive for longer than 4 hours a day and don’t drive at night.

But a few years ago, I was on a mission to get to Granada, with no slow travel principles to guide my way. The joy and benefits of slow travel however is a story for another day. This story is about the environmental impact of traveling in a van. Here I was, gunning my way through Spain, filling up my third tank of diesel, when it occurred to me “maybe I’m full of shit, and van travel isn’t more environmentally friendly than getting a flight?”

Sheepishly, now in the passenger seat, as we drove along the Castellón coast, I opened up google, (this was back in the day before chatGPT) and searched CO2 emissions for a flight from Amsterdam to Granada.

2 hour 37 minute flight. 1808 km. 250 kg of CO2 per person.

My van is a 2008 Renault Master, diesel and has a euro 4 emission standard. So for a medium size van, emits around 180g of CO2 per km. Some quick math later and I had some hard numbers for my impulsive drive south.

21 hours 36 minute drive. 2182km. 393 kg of CO2.

There it was, my fragile eco-ego crumbling right before me. Desperately trying to appease myself, I franticly tried to justify it. Firstly, 393kg is for everyone in the van, which in our case, this time, was 2 adults and 1 dog. So 196 kg of CO2 per person. 131 kg if you count the dog, but I don’t think that counts, so pretty close to the emissions of a flight. Shocked and surprised, we discussed the reality of what we have just uncovered and learnt a few lessons.

Still not satisfied, sitting in the passenger seat with a fair few hours left to drive, I stopped moaning and did some research. The previous year, whilst on a trip around Portugal, someone told me about how you can make your own diesel from left over cooking oil. I was curious, but mostly brushed it aside as either a conspiracy theory or something I would never try and pull off, probably a good idea based on a C in high school chemistry and a slightly sketchy history of garage experiments going up in flames.

But desperate as I was in this moment of realisation, I did look it up. And to my surprise, it was 100% true. Luckily for me though, some real scientists had cracked it and renewable diesel HVO-100 had just started being sold in some countries in Europe. A straight switch for normal diesel meant I could immediately fill up my van, with no modifications required.

Bear with me for a pretty boring, but maybe important few paragraphs… According to Neste, the fuel company supplying to the Netherlands, renewable diesel “results in up to 90% less greenhouse gas (GHG or CO2e) emissions over the fuel’s life cycle when compared with fossil diesel”. The renewable fuel, HVO-100, is made from 100% renewable raw materials.

Conditioned with a significant scepticism of green washing and cautious of big energy companies false promises, I kept questioning. I had some idea that bio-fuels were not a great solution when the plants were grown specifically to be turned into fuel. Something to do with the land use and other requirements not actually leading to such a big emission reduction.

However, I found out that this renewable diesel is being made from waste products, left over animal fat and old cooking oil from the food industry and some other stuff. Which will then actually lead to such a significant, “up to” 90% reduction in CO2 emissions.

Thank fuck. The planet (and my eco-ego) might have just been saved. Maybe… like most things in life, it’s not a done deal. There is, of course, an ongoing discussion around renewable fuels and their actual impact based on what they are made from.

For me however, since this trip, whenever possible I have been filling up with renewable diesel, which initially was quite hard. I could only find it in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. But over the last year, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Ireland, the UK and even my Island of origin, Jersey, all now have pumps with HVO-100. Check out E Fuels Now, where some, no-nonsense, German engineers have been communicating the dense and challenging nuances of alternative fuels to a broader audience since 2019 and provide a map for finding fill up points around Europe. Now also shown on the Ramble map.

One more point before I shut up, renewable diesel is more expensive than normal diesel, but I’ve noticed it also leads to a tank of fuel covering more distance. In turn making the cost difference not too unreasonable in my case.

So, if like me, you were shocked to discover driving with a van had the same impact as flying in a plane, consider switching to renewable fuel and embracing slow local travel. You will do your bit to have less of an impact on the environment whilst still spreading love and good vibes in your van.