JR Tokai and JR West are offering a new service that allows employees of companies with corporate contracts to virtually eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from traveling by paying an additional fee when using the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen. announced that it would be introduced.
According to the announcement, the new service will allow employees of companies with corporate contracts to pay an additional fee when using the Shinkansen on business trips, and JR will provide the company with a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions based on the distance traveled. This means issuing a certificate showing the
To implement the service, JR Tokai and JR West will essentially purchase electricity derived from renewable energy from electric power companies for a portion of the electricity used on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen.
For companies, the certificate issued by JR means that they can virtually eliminate carbon dioxide emissions associated with the movement of employees.
The additional fee that companies pay is about a few dozen yen per person for a one-way trip between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka.
This service is scheduled to begin in April, and is said to be the first attempt at such a service using the Shinkansen.
Shunsuke Niwa, president of JR Tokai, said, ``We believe that interest in the environment will increase.We hope that people will consider using the Shinkansen as an environmentally friendly means of transportation for business trips.''
Efforts toward decarbonization are spreading among railway companies, with some private railways switching to virtually all the electricity used to operate their trains from renewable energy sources.