Thames21 starts 2021 with a greener, cleaner van

GPS Marine, a leading marine contractor on the Thames and Medway rivers, revved up 2021 by giving Thames21 a van!

Lee McAdam, fleet manager for GPS Marine, handed over the van keys to Thames21’s Steve Haywood in early January.

The van will help Thames21 to reduce harmful emissions and comply with forthcoming ULEZ regulations, enabling the charity to run events in a cleaner and greener way.

‘This is a brilliant new year’s present! It will help us continue to improve London’s many rivers and run events once it’s safe to do so,’ said Chris Coode, Thames21 Deputy CEO. ‘The Thames21 van is an essential component of a Thames21 event, packed full of wellies, socks, gloves, equipment, tea and biscuits! Our vans are almost like a key member of staff and we’re delighted with this new addition to our team. Warm thanks to GPS Marine for this donation.’

GPS Marine fleet manager Lee McAdam hands over the new van keys to Thames21’s Steve Haywood, NFM programme manager

John Spencer, Managing Director of GPS Marine said: ‘GPS Marine is a significant player on the Thames and we want to play our part in improving it, both from an environmental perspective and as a commercial waterway. Thames21 serves the Thames and engages people with the river, so we’re delighted to support the charity in this way.’

GPS Marine are pioneering ways to reduce their environmental footprint. They are committed to trialling retro-fit exhaust gas treatment technologies to reduce particulate emissions. The company has elected to change its Thames-based fleet from burning marine gas oil (a fossil fuel with no bio content) to a product with very low particulate emissions, produced from hydrogen-treated waste cooking oil, called Green D+.