For Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Daytona road course, Roush Fenway Racing‘s Ryan Newman will sport a special all-white livery on his #6 Ford Mustang to commemorate his team becoming the first in the sport to become carbon neutral. The effort is supported by sponsor Castrol.
“As an organisation, Roush Fenway has always been environmentally conscious,” RFR president Steve Newmark stated on Thursday. “Our hope with this programme is to demonstrate that every business, small or large, and regardless of industry, can contribute to address global climate challenges. We hope to set an example and highlight that small steps by many can make a real difference.”
PAS 2060 carbon neutrality was achieved by the team—including both cars (#6 of Newman and #17 of Chris Buescher) and the operational divisions—during the 2020 calendar year, as confirmed by an investigation from ERM Certification and Verification Services. PAS, or Publicly Accessible Specification, is a standard created by the British Standards Institution in 2010, and the process to reach it includes calculating a group’s carbon footprint, reducing and offsetting emissions, and receiving validation from a third party like ERM CVS.
Castrol began sponsoring the #6 in 2020. Normally, the car would be green-and-red with Castrol sponsorship, but has been changed to all-white with grey logos for the Daytona race to promote the achievement.
“At Castrol, we believe that small steps together can make a difference,” Castrol Vice President of Marketing Rayne Pacek said. “We want to play our part and teaming up with Roush Fenway to achieve their carbon neutral ambitions is a notable milestone in the sport and another step in supporting our partners in their efforts to drive change.”
Efforts to promote environmentally friendliness have been made throughout numerous major motorsport, such as the NASCAR Green programme that supports sustainability and carbon offset; numerous teams and tracks on the NASCAR circuit have also taken part. Formula One have also announced plans to go carbon neutral in 2021 and become fully neutral at net-zero by 2030. Like RFR, Formula E‘s Envision Virgin Racing is the first carbon-neutral team in their respective series.
Newman will start Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 in thirty-third.
