Certas Energy to supply HVO shuttle buses at Hillhead exhibition

Certas Energy on June 12 said it would sponsor Hillhead 2026 and supply about 2,000 litres of HVO for the exhibition’s official shuttle buses. The buses will carry up to 20,000 attendees to and from Hillhead Quarry in Buxton, Derbyshire, when the show runs from June 23 to June 25.

Hillhead says it is the UK’s largest quarrying, construction and recycling equipment show, with about 600 exhibitors and nearly 20,000 audited visitors across three days. The event’s organisers also said in 2025 that the 2026 edition would implement ISO 20121:2024, the sustainability-management framework for events. That put transport fuel, not just stand power and waste handling, into the public-facing sustainability mix.

For Certas, the shuttle-bus deployment is a visible but limited-volume way to put HVO in front of quarrying and construction operators, equipment suppliers and fleet managers. The company says HVO can cut life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 90% versus standard diesel, a figure that gives the fuel a clear carbon argument in a sector still dominated by diesel-powered site logistics.

The move also fits a broader commercial push around access and infrastructure. Certas Energy separately announced a £1.5 million programme to upgrade five UK HGV refuelling bunkers over 12 months, starting with a £500,000 refurbishment at Alconbury in Cambridgeshire. Trade coverage said the upgraded sites would offer diesel, AdBlue and HVO, along with compatibility for major digital fuel cards including FuelTapp. That kind of network buildout matters because HVO adoption depends as much on reliable supply as on emissions claims.

Zemo Partnership reported last year that Certas Energy’s HVO investment would enable an extra one million litres of use in its own operating fleet and that HVO sales had risen by more than 60% in the previous year. Taken together with Hillhead, the bunker programme and the fleet figures point to the same strategy: normalise renewable diesel through familiar, low-risk applications before chasing larger transport contracts.

The Hillhead shuttle buses will not move the market on their own, but they do show how HVO is being sold into real operations, not just policy decks and conference slides. For suppliers, that kind of showcase is the first step in turning a niche fuel into a routine choice for diesel-heavy sectors.