Why sustainability matters, and what it means in practice

ALPHERA Financial Services is the sustainability partner for several prestigious industry events hosted by Credit Strategy throughout 2021. In a year that marks our 15^th anniversary of operating in the UK car finance market, we are keen to play a key role in the transition to more sustainable forms of personal mobility.

As BMW Group’s independent motor finance division, ALPHERA’s focus on sustainability reflects the vision and responsibility of our parent company. One of the early pioneers of battery-powered cars, BMW Group is implementing key measures to help Europe become climate-neutral by 2050, with a focus on lowering vehicle emissions to meet Europe’s ambitious CO2 targets.

Among the unprecedented and challenging circumstances of 2020, we introduced the motor finance industry’s first carbon offsetting programme for used hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) purchases.

ALPHERA Zero is a unique finance product that allows consumers to buy a used hybrid or PHEV vehicle and offset all its carbon emissions throughout their term of ownership – at no cost to them. We are also working with Hampshire-based sustainability experts Carbon Footprint to offset the emissions of vehicles financed through ALPHERA Zero via tree planting programmes.

Specific offsetting requirements vary by customer, determined by their vehicle and agreed contractual mileage, and we’re currently exploring options to expand the scheme beyond the initial partnership with online car sales platform BuyaCar.

Sustainability is a core part of our strategy and we’re constantly looking for ways to support the car industry as the UK enters the next era of electromobility. ALPHERA Zero offers used car buyers the opportunity to embrace plug-in and hybrid technology while reducing their impact on the environment. Our long-term vision is to play a role in supporting plug-in hybrid and EV take-up, as these vehicles become more mainstream within the retail market, through a range of finance products.

Another element of ALPHERA’s sustainability strategy is our core value proposition of long-term partnership. Despite the challenging year, we posted record results in 2020, posting our best performance during 15 years in the UK car finance market. For the first time ever, we also surpassed 100,000 motor finance agreements during a 12-month period, which represented year-on-year growth of over 20%.

Our sustainability investment will help Credit Strategy offset its carbon emissions from its annual events through a tree planting programme. As part of the sustainability partnership, ALPHERA and Credit Strategy have committed to planting a new tree for every ticket sold to the Car Finance Conference. Thanks to ALPHERA’s sustainability partnership for Credit Strategy events in 2020, 200 trees have already been planted.

This will offset 60 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent to 146,580 miles in a standard car. 

ALPHERA Financial Services will be the sustainability partner for Credit Strategy’s Car Finance Conference and Awards, Credit Summit, Women in Credit Awards and Credit Awards. The partnership starts with the Car Finance Conference held digitally on Tuesday 23 March, where I will join the ‘Customer journey development: Through lockdown and beyond’ panel to discuss how lockdown has changed and improved the customer journey.

To register for the digital broadcast, visit the Car Finance Conference page on Credit Strategy’s webiste.