I missed this news recently (thanks for the tip Kris). SAAB Australia have committed to going climate neutral, by planting trees to offset the emissions from production of new vehicles. They’re using Greenfleet for the offsets.

It’s hard to know quite how to react to this news. While it’s great that SAAB have made the commitment to going carbon neutral, it appears that they are pretty much relying on offsets to do the job.

We have a fairly simple motto when it comes to going carbon neutral - Reduce, Renew, Offset - and the order is important. I do hope that SAAB are also focusing on the “Reduce” and “Renew” components of that equation.

We’re also not big fans of tree-based carbon offsets - preferring CDM accredited offsets, like those offered by WWF partner Climate Friendly.

In other news, we see that SAAB are trialing an biofuel-powered vehicle for the Australian market (also reported at Green Car Congress).

AutoblogGreen hit the nail on the head, though:

Despite the huge sugar cane industry in Australia, ethanol availability is currently limited at the pump meaning that a BioPower vehicle in Australia is likely to spend its life running on regular petrol.

So the news is not that exciting from an environmental perspective - hybrids and high-efficiency diesel are still the best options at this stage for the environmentally conscious driver.

So it seems SAAB are making an effort, but perhaps they’re not quite hitting the mark? What do you think?