Simon Collings

Sustainable Transport Consultant

This is not a complete list of projects that Simon has worked on but is designed to show the range of projects he has been involved in.  If you would like more detail about any of the projects listed here please contact Simon.

Project List

Energy Saving Trust ‘Green Fleet Reviews’: 2004 - Ongoing. Simon is a specialist advisor helping to deliver EST’s ‘Green Fleet Reviews’.  He has undertaken more than 30 reviews for a wide range of clients helping them to identify actions for reducing their transport emisisons and costs.

BAA Heathrow Clean Vehicles Programme Incentive Scheme: 2006. Working for STS this project involved the design and implementation of an incentive scheme that provides grants to Heathrow based companies for reducing Nitrogen Oxide emissions (NOx) from fleet vehicles. The scheme was designed as a competitive process whereby applications are judged on their cost-effectiveness for reducing NOx.

Suffolk County Council Business Mileage Study: 2006. Commissioned by Suffolk County Council to benchmark their business travel mileage and costs against other similar local authorities and to develop a new strategy for reducing mileage and costs.

Centre for Sustainable Energy: 2005. Working in partnership with Quantock Energy & Environment, Simon helped provide sustainable transport training for local energy advisors.  Simon was responsible for developing a training module on mobility management.

BAA Heathrow Travel Plan: 2003 – Ongoing. Simon is working with BAA Heathrow to help further develop the Heathrow area-wide travel plan.  A key part of his role is to engage with other airport based organisations to get them to buy-in to and implement the travel plan developed by BAA.

Gateshead Council: 2004-2005. Simon assessed Gateshead Council’s fleet operation in support of their application to join the Government backed Motorvate programme.  The work involved auditing their fleet fuel consumption, mileage and carbon dioxide emissions and making recommendations on how environmental performace could be improved.

BAA Clean Vehicles Programme: 2003-Ongoing. Simon was commissioned by BAA Heathrow to mange the implementation of their Clean Vehicles Programme (CVP).  The CVP helps companies identify and implement cost-effective measures for improving the environmental performance of their business and fleet transport operations.  It rewards achievements through an assessment and certification process.  Simon is responsible for convincing companies to participate, auditing performance and helping companies to improve the environmental performance of their business and fleet transport.

Islington Council Green Fleet Review: 2004.  Working as a sub-contractor to Steer Davies Gleave, Simon undertook an assessment of clean vehicle options for the Islington fleet.  The work involved analysing the make-up and usage patterns of the fleet and then identifying a range of appropriate cleaner, ‘green’ options for each vehicle category.   An analysis framework was developed to help Islington compare the alternative options in terms of their potential emissions reduction and whole life costs.

Energy Saving Trust: 2004. Simon was appointed as the interim Head of Advice for EST’s TransportEnergy programme to assist with the future development of the BestPractice programme. Simon continues to support the TransportEnergy programme in developing strategies and plans for providing advice and information on travel plans and fleet management.

BAA Southampton Travel Plan: 2004. Simon helped BAA Southampton develop their travel plan.  Working with the Operations Director and Head of Service Delivery, Simon provided guidance on the management and implementation aspects of the plan.  He also analysed the home postcodes of airport employees to identify the overall potential take up of alternative modes of travel.

UCLH NHS Trust Travel Plan: 2003 - 2004. Working as a sub-contractor to Steer Davies Gleave on this Transport for London project, Simon helped University College London Hospitals NHS Trust develop a travel plan, encompassing each of its six main sites.

World Duty Free – Individualised Marketing: 2003. Simon worked with World Duty Free in implementing an individualised marketing campaign to promote the Heathrow Airport Travel Card to their staff.  The work involved plotting home postcodes of staff against the Airport Travel Card bus routes to identify potential users of the card. A targeted marketing exercise was then undertaken to promote the benefits of the card to these staff.

 Heathrow Personal Journey Planners: 2003.  Simon was asked by BAA to support a campaign to provide personal journey planners for Heathrow employees.  The campaign focused on the local bus routes that serve Heathrow direct. Simon developed templates for each bus route, which could then be adapted to provide personalised planners for staff living close to those routes.

Sustrans Healthy Travel Seminars: 2003.  Simon chaired 4 seminars aimed at promoting travel plans to the NHS

Review of the Government’s Climate Change Programme: 2003. This DEFRA funded project was commissioned to review the ex-ante and ex-post assessments of the Government’s Climate Change policies. Working for ILEX Energy, Simon was responsible for reviewing the assessments of the transport policies within the Climate Change Programme.  The work concentrated on the basis for the carbon saving estimates resulting from the policies, and to what extent these savings estimates are likely to still be delivered.

Freight Quality Partnerships Guide: 2002-2003. The Department for Transport commissioned Simon to produce a good practice guide on setting up and running freight quality partnerships (FQP).  The guide is aimed at local authorities to help them establish FQPs.  The work involved interviewing local authorities and other key stakeholders in order to identify good practice. Subsequently, Simon spoke at a series of 9 regional seminars to promote the guide.

Case Study on Reducing the Environmental Impact of Distribution: 2002. On behalf of the Government’s TransprtEnergy Best Practice Programme, Simon researched and wrote a case study describing Transco National Grid’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their logistics operation.

Transport Energy Best Practice Programme: 1997 - 2002. Prior to becoming self-employed in 2002 Simon managed what is now known as the TransportEnergy Best Practice Programme.  This is a dissemination programme aimed at helping UK organisations improve the environmental performance of their transport operations.  Simon helped to grow the programme from its beginnings in the mid-90s into a £1.5M per annum programme. Simon’s role involved working with DfT to develop and implement communications strategies for best practice in travel plans, fleet management and logistics.

Environmental Evaluation of Urban Transport Projects: 1995 - 1998. Simon managed a number of projects for several local authorities to evaluate the energy, air quality and noise implications of proposed urban transport schemes such as rapid transit systems and traffic management measures. The work utilised a range of methods, including energy and emissions forecasting models, air dispersion models and techniques to estimate the monetary value of environmental costs and benefits.