Category: Fleet Emissions News

158 posts
CARB Awards Recognizes Leadership in Environmental Impact

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is accepting nominations for its CoolCalifornia Small Business Awards, which recognize small California businesses (under 100 employees) that have shown leadership and taken action to reduce their energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions and made notable, voluntary achievements towards reducing their environmental impact. Nominations are being accepted until January 24, 2011.

Two categories of awards will be given — one recognizing the CoolCalifornia “Small Businesses of the Year” and another to the CoolCalifornia “Climate Leaders.”

The businesses of the year must demonstrate significant, measurable actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, invest in clean or renewable energy, purchase environmentally-conscious products such as hybrid or electric vehicles, and educate employees, customers and the general public. The “Climate Leaders” will be the most proactive nominees in reducing environmental impacts, through changes that may include efficient lighting, recycling programs, increased weatherization or the buying of environmentally-friendly products.

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Used Cooking Oil Helps Vehicle Fleets Reduce Emissions

New Leaf Biofuel is a San Diego based biodiesel company focused on transforming the way companies fuel their vehicle fleets. New Leaf BioFuel collects used cooking oil from roughly 1,000 local restaurants and converts it to biodiesel fuel. It sells the biodiesel to distributors who sell the fuel to customers running green fleets of diesel trucks.

Vehicles run cleaner and quieter on biodiesel and the fleet emissions are much better. Biodiesel is an alternative renewable fuel made from plant and animal oils that is used in diesel engines. It has been shown to reduce vehicle emissions by 75% on average compared to petroleum diesel.

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San Diego Airport Shuttle Expands Natural Gas Green Fleet

his week, the San Diego Airport announced they have added a new green fleet of parking shuttles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG). The addition of eco-friendly parking shuttle buses is only the latest step in San Diego’s evolving commitment to cleaner renewable fuels. Including this new fleet, San Diego has a total fleet of 24 CNG powered vehicles. The all-new “green” Airport Shuttle Fleet transports passengers between the terminals and the airport’s nearby SAN Park parking lots. The airport also has other alternative fuel vehicles in its fleet, including those powered by electricity and bio-fuel, according to Airport officials.

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Low-Cost Green Fleet Strategies for Medium-Sized Trucks

3 Easy Ways Fleets Can Reduce Vehicle Emissions and Cut Fuel Costs:

The upfront costs to invest in a fleet of hybrid vehicles is quite expensive. But there are other great ways to create a green fleet and save money.

1. Driver Efficiency Initiatives:

Train and educate your drivers. Your drivers can control fuel consumption each time they fire up their engines. Proper training can improve fuel efficiency, fuel economy and reduce vehicle emissions. There is a quick ROI on driver training because fuel consumption can immediately be reduce by at least a few percent.

Hard acceleration, speeding and idling are the biggest causes of wasted fuel. Use data gathered from a fleet tracking system to monitor and improve driver behavior. Develop a driver training course for drivers and reward participation.

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GPS Fleet Management – Drive Smart, Drive Green, Drive Profits

FieldLogix is a green GPS fleet management solution designed to reduce fleet fuel consumption and improve productivity. FieldLogix has ranked among the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in San Diego for the past two years.“Wireless fleet management systems can put a spotlight on a driver’s habits that consume excessive fuel and emit unnecessary pollution. The most frequent of these activities include excessive speeding, idling and sudden acceleration and stops. Tracking these types of activities is essential to achieving a fuel-efficient green fleet,” said Yukon Palmer, CEO of FieldLogix. “We have dozens of case studies showing that with the right tools and strategy, you can reduce the average fleet vehicle’s operating costs by over $8,064 and reduce 2 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution per vehicle annually with modern telematics technology and proper driver education.”

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Tips to Reduce Fuel Usage and Vehicle Emissions

Use the following driving tips to burn less fuel, increase driver safety, and decrease vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. According to the United Nations Environment Program, the German Road Safety Council, the UK fuel guru Dr Michael Coyle, the UK Driving Standards Agency and the UK Sustainable Development Commission, here are 15 eco-friendly (aka Green fleet) driving tips for drivers:

* Read the vehicle handbook to ensure that you know how it works, and that it is maintained in line with manufacturer recommendations.
* Remove unnecessary load weight and roof racks.
* Circle-check the vehicle before each journey. Look for fluids on the floor, poorly-inflated tires or anything out of the ordinary. FLOWER is a good circle-check acronym – Fuel, lights, oil, water, electrics and rubber.
* Avoid reversing with a cold engine. Reverse into parking spaces when the engine is warm. It is also safer to reverse in and drive out. Warm the engine by pulling away smoothly and driving gently.

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AT&T’s Green Fleet Management Tips, Strategy and Achievements

Less than 2 years ago, AT&T committed to replacing approximately 15,000 of its nearly 76,000 fleet vehicles with alternative fuel models by 2019. Since then, AT & T has deployed 2,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet vehicles, a major green fleet milestone. The company’s 15,000 alt-fuel fleet vehicle plan will displace 2.5 million barrels of oil, reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons, and create or save 5,500 jobs, according to the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute.

The company expects to spend an estimated $350 million over five years to purchase roughly 8,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet vehicles. CNG vehicles provide a reduction in carbon emissions – approximately 25 percent compared with traditional gasoline vehicles. They are also working with natural gas service providers to build up to 40 new CNG fueling stations to provide the infrastructure needed for the new vehicles. AT&T’s green fleet plan includes an approximately $215 million investment to replace 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative-fuel models. The measure will save 49 million gallons of gasoline over 10 years, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

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Google’s Driverless Vehicle Technology Creates Car That Drives Itself

Have you ever wanted a car that could drive itself? Google’s (GOOG) latest project brings hardware and software together to create a self driving car. Time Magazine Recently Put it on it’s 50 Best Inventions of 2010 List. The vehicle created by Google has already traveled 140,000 miles safely on its own.

Google says the one of a kind vehicle is not meant to replace drivers but to help them. Imagine being able to take your hands off the wheel for a minute to check an email or take a phone call. This would be an amazing feature to have on a vehicle, especially when traveling long distances, or when you are in in unfamiliar areas or have children in the car. An engineer from Google described it as “Super Cruise Control,” a way to drastically improve your driving experience rather than replace driving altogether.

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Hertz & Enterprise add all Electric Vehicles to Fleet

Two of the biggest car rental companies in the US – Hertz and Enterprise – will be adding Coda Automotive all-electric Sedans to their car rental green fleet in 2011. The Enterprise Rent-a-Car Fleet will be adding up to 100 Coda Electric Sedans to their car rental locations in California. Hertz said it will be adding the Coda electric vehicles to its car rental vehicle fleet at some Southern California locations and in San Francisco next year.

Hertz said its network of more than 8,300 locations would give it a “unique opportunity” to introduce the all-electric CODA to potential consumers. Hertz is working to set up vehicle charging stations at its rental and car sharing locations, with the aim of rolling out a full-scale electric vehicle rental program in the US and abroad beginning in 2011.

“With one of the world’s largest rental-car fleets, Hertz is uniquely positioned to catalyze the adoption of all-electric vehicles and infrastructure supporting electric mobility,” said Mark Jamieson, Coda’s CFO and CEO, in a statement.

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2010 Government Green Fleet Management Awards Winners

he 40 winners of the 2010 Government Green Fleet Awards were announced at the Green Fleet Conference in October. The City of Seattle was named as the No. 1 Green Fleet in North America. Greening your fleet means becoming more efficient – which can result in lowering fleet management costs. A successful green fleet management plan is a win-win for fleet operators and the environment because it will lower costs and reduce fleet emissions.

The Green Fleet Management Awards were judged on the following criteria:

1. Fleet Composition – This category compares your current fleet composition of conventional fueled (gas & diesel) vehicles versus hybrid, electric, and alternative fuels etc.

2. Fuel & Emissions – The fuels criteria determines your use of renewable and alternative sources of energy. It compares your total use of conventional versus renewable fuels such as BioDiesel & Ethanol, and non-renewable fuels such as propane and compressed natural gas. The emissions criteria evaluates what your fleet has done to cleanup your current inventory of on and off road diesel equipment.

3. Policy & Planning – An integral part of any green fleet plan is not necessarily what you do today, but also what you have planned for the future. Green fleet sustainability is the process in which you plan for the future environmental role of your fleet. Will you continue to budget and purchase green technologies, or will you stop your current green efforts?

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Economic Guide to Greening Your Fleet With EV’s

he Fleet Electrification Roadmap is a guide that provides insight and analysis on the economics of electric vehicles for fleet management. The Fleet Roadmap recognizes the myriad financial and technological challenges for fleet management in converting a gas-fueled fleet of vehicles to electric.

The analysis within the Fleet Roadmap suggests that with targeted policies in place, fleet adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles could reach 200,000 vehicles by 2015. The report includes the results of a detailed total cost of ownership analysis for electric vehicles in fleets for several different industries.

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Federal Tax Credits Helps Fleets Go Electric

A report was given to Congress last week stating that Congress should provide tax credits and renewable energy bonds to replace the 16 million fleet cars and trucks in the U.S. with electric vehicles and develop the infrastructure required to power them. An organization called Electrification Coalition (EC) announced the conclusions of their report at a news conference last week.
EC said that wants to see electric fleet vehicles utilized on a huge scale. In their report, EC makes the case that identifying and solving issues arising from modernizing fleets with electric vehicles will have spillover effects for the rest of the American population.

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UCSD’s Green Fleet One of the Greenest Government Vehicle Fleets in US

The University of San Diego (UCSD) Fleet Services ranked 22nd in the Seventh Annual Government Green Fleet Awards, a competition of environmentally friendly vehicle-fleet operations that is open to all federal, state and local governments in North America. According to Rex Graham of UCSD, UCSD takes great pride in its green fleet, and looks forward to further reducing its fleet emissions and overall carbon footprint. UC San Diego’s Fleet Services ranked 22nd UC Davis’ vehicle fleet ranked fourth. The two UC campuses were the only college campuses ranked. The city of San Diego’s vehicle fleet ranked 19th.

A panel of judges based the ranking on performance in seven categories:

* The degree to which fleets are made up of hybrid, electric, and alternative-fuel vehicles.
* Use of renewable fuels.
* Planning that includes budgeting for future additions of green technologies.
* Use of vehicles that are appropriately sized for the required tasks.
* A high degree of utilization of all vehicles in the fleet.
* Executive and employee involvement in implementation of improved green technologies.
* Support programs such as recycling, applying for grants and maintenance-facility improvements.

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Green Fleet Vehicle Market Boosted by GE EV Purchase

This week GE announced plans to purchase 25,000 electric cars by 2015. This the largest purchase in the history of electric vehicles. The purchases will be for its own fleet and for its Capital Fleet Services business, where customers can lease electric cars through GE. GE plans to convert over 50 percent of its massive global fleet (over 10,000 fleet vehicles) and purchase 12,000 electric cars from GM.

GM does big business in fleet sales. Fleet sales look like they’re going to be a key part of electric vehicle adoption. Corporate fleets make a lot of sense because of their sheer volume. Plus GE fleet sales are quite profitable. One of the most popular green fleet vehicles is the GE Volt, an electric vehicle that shifts to gas power after going 25 to 50 miles on its battery, so drivers aren’t entirely dependent on the battery.

According to BusinessWeek, gigantic orders like this could do a lot to push electric vehicle prices down and speed up adoption. “By electrifying our own fleet, we will accelerate the adoption curve, drive scale, and move electric vehicles from anticipation to action,” CEO Jeffrey Immelt said in a company statement.

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Develop a Green Fleet Sustainability Program with Alt Fuel Vehicles

At the Green Fleet Conference 2010 in San Diego last month, David Meisel, Transportation Services Director for PG&E, gave an excellent presentation on Introducing Alternate Fuel Vehicles Into Your Fleet. PG & E is the largest fleet operating in California and one of the largest fleets in the U.S.

Meisel said, “Pacific Gas and Electric Company believes in environmental leadership from an energy, supply chain and green fleet perspective. Greening the fleet makes good business sense – from both an environmental and economic standpoint. Without question, we have a unified front in terms of our commitment to environmental leadership and greening our fleet. Our chairman is actively engaged on issues associated with climate change and we’re supportive of GHG legislation both on the national and international fronts. We’ve also supported California’s Low-Carbon Fuel Standard and state policies that address climate change, petroleum reduction, and emissions reductions.”

When it comes to choosing the right green fleet mix – one size does not fit all. Different fleets require different solutions. Developing a green supply chain program with an embedded green fleet strategy is challenging but “worth it” because of the cost savings and environmental benefits.

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Green Fleet 2010 Conference A Success – Presentations Now Online

san diego mayor jerry sandersGreen Fleet Conference 2010 in San Diego, CA was a huge success — with record breaking attendance! The conference sessions were standing room only, the exhibit hall was buzzing with energy. Green Fleet Conference attendees really enjoyed taking out the alternative fuel vehicles for a spin at The Ride & Drive event. If you missed this year, I highly recommend you attend Green Fleet Conference 2011 next year.

Mayor Jerry Sanders showed his support of environmental sustainability by delivering opening remarks before the Environmental Leadership Awards and 100 Best Green Fleet Awards Ceremony.

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Fleet Fuel Consumption a Focus at Agrion Green Fleet Conference

recently had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion at Agrion’s Green Fleet Conference in Silicon Valley. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the technologies currently in use to reduce conventional fuel consumption. The key take away from the conference was that each fleet must consider its own unique circumstances before determining the best method to green its fleet. Not all solutions will work for everyone, and each have their own advantages and disadvantages. The fleet should take a long-term perspective when evaluating its options and potential cost savings.

The primary technologies discussed included telematics, hybrid and electric vehicles, and alternative fuels.

Telematics
Telematics was discussed as a method to retrofit conventional fuel vehicles with technology in order to monitor driver habits. The primary poor driving habits that emit excessive carbons and waste fuel include speeding, idling, hard braking, and unnecessary acceleration. GPS fleet tracking systems have been monitoring these activities for years, but our opinion was that it is also important to emphasize the costs associated with these activities and provide some level of driver training and feedback. By focusing on the costs and emissions associated with idling and speeding, fleet managers are much more motivated to take action to correct these habits. By providing driver training and feedback, drivers are much more aware of their impact on the environment and their employer’s bottom line. The use of telematics is a relatively inexpensive method to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

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Improving Driver Behavior Key To Reducing Vehicle Emissions

driver education According to the 2010 Green Fleet Survey by PHH Arval, improving driver behavior is one of the most important ways that fleets are reducing emissions. Seventy-four percent of fleet managers reported they are depending on drivers to help meet their fleet’s environmental goals. The most common type of communication has been to educate drivers on how their driving behavior can impact fuel economy.

It would be virtually impossible to measure and improve driver behavior without the use of a telematics enabled GPS Fleet Management System. Using vehicle telematics systems, fleets are able to monitor and analyze valuable information about driver behavior, vehicle routing and fuel efficiency. All of this information is critical business insight to help fleet managers minimize risk, expenses and emissions.

Telematics enabled GPS Fleet Management Systems give fleet managers the feedback necessary to engage drivers about their driving performance and provide coaching on how to improve safety, efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint. Smart fleet managers are combining on-board safety monitoring with behavioral coaching to help reduce the amount of risky and wasteful driving behavior.

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