Hansen Motorsport becomes first rallycross team to achieve carbon neutral status

Multiple FIA World Rallycross Championship-winning outfit Hansen Motorsport has released its 2022 sustainability report, confirming its status as the first team in the discipline to attain carbon neutrality – as it targets net-zero emissions by 2040.

In recent years, Hansen Motorsport – which fields a brace of Peugeot 208 RX1e cars for brothers Timmy and Kevin Hansen at the highest level of the sport – has undertaken a self-critical review of its actions to make substantial changes in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint, following the ‘R-R-R’ mantra: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. This has resulted in a 57.9% decrease in carbon emissions since 2019.

In 2022 – the year in which World RX went completely electric – the team’s carbon footprint was measured at 278.7 tCO2e. While still on the road to net-zero, the Swedish squad is currently offsetting the remainder of its emissions by supporting the Piedra Larga wind farm project in Mexico with partner ALLCOT to achieve carbon neutral status.

The Götene-based organisation’s efforts have been bolstered by becoming a signatory to both the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and Race to Zero. It is also FIA 3-Star (Sustainability Accreditation) and ISO 14001:2015 (International Organisation for Standardisation) certified.

As part of the UN Global Goals mission for Sustainable Development, Hansen Motorsport is making significant strides under 17 different headers, including key topics such as health and wellbeing, equality, sustainability and consumption.

Amongst those endeavours, the team has made many ‘small’ changes that contribute to the overall target, such as using tap water in reusable bottles and removing all single-use bottles and cups from both race weekends and at HQ. The workshop itself runs on 100 per cent renewable electricity, adhering to a ‘No Person – No Lights’ policy.

Hansen Motorsport has additionally created incentives for fans to travel to events in more sustainable ways, while supporting WWF programmes and highlighting issues in the vicinity of the circuits at which it competes. For the upcoming World RX of Portugal at Montalegre (3-4 June), the focus will be on local wildfires in the country’s Vila Real region.

“Hansen Motorsport has never been afraid of leading,” commented the team’s Head of Sustainability, Susann Hansen. “Leading is what we strive for each day, whether that’s on or off the racetrack.

“When we had the chance to go fully electric in the FIA World Rallycross Championship, it was jumping into something new. It was scary, but it was the right thing to do – and we felt it was also the opportunity to take our environmental commitments to a new level.

“We were the first rallycross team to join UNFCCC Sports For Climate Action and the first to get the FIA 3-Star Accreditation. Now we are also the first in publishing a sustainability report, and to be offsetting by supporting wind power technology.

“Leading can be difficult, but we have never hesitated in our decision to make every day count and we work to constantly try to improve the environmental situation. We love motorsport and we want to keep on racing for trophies, while racing for a healthier planet, too.”

Hansen Motorsport’s 2022 World RX sustainability report can be downloaded here.