Carbon Footprint Reduction with Car-Sharing Service – A Case Study

This paper reviews how much a car-sharing service can reduce CO2 emissions. Based on literature and a case study, an estimation of CO2 emissions is made. The studied vehicle fleet consists mostly of vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICEV), and hence the potential reduction of CO2 emissions with this kind of fleet is very limited. Propositions for more sustainable vehicle fleet are made and the potential of car-sharing service in Finland is discussed. The results show that users are replacing sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling) with car-sharing services. Replacing ICEVs with battery electric vehicles (BEV) would allow 31 % decrease in CO2 emissions. However, this would require major changes to the fleet.